“Simone,” is a satire about a synthetic actor manufactured by computers. She is perfect in every way and everyone loves her. Al Pacino, who stars as Simone’s creator, moves the movie along. The show opens telling about a washed-up movie director whose resume includes Oscar nominations for short films. Viktor Taransky (Pacino) is so close to being washed up that he works for a studio head who is also his ex-wife, played by Catherine Keener. Viktor’s latest star (Winona Ryder) walks off his picture in the final days of shooting, leaving Viktor with lots of unusable footage and unable to find any actress in Hollywood to help him finish the project. Then Hank Aleno, a crazed computer genius, approaches him. The dying software creator gives Viktor what he has been looking for – a computerized, perfect actress.
Viktor then finishes his film by substituting Simone as his lead actress. The movie is a sensation, and other sensations follow including record contracts and even a perfume created for Simone. For a film about cutting-edge technology, and computer wizardry, “Simone” is pretty basic.
So who is Simone? If you visit New Line Cinema’s website, the actress playing Simone, the computer generated actress, was given no bio information. It’s an obvious attempt to mimic the movie and it’s a great marketing idea but it’s irritating if you really want to know anything about the lead actress. Actually Simone’s real name is Rachel Roberts, a model, and this is her first feature film. Overall the movie had something to be desired, though it did have its’ moments.
As we were leaving the theater my daughter said to me, “Mom, I didn’t get it.” I think that comment expands to a general audience. On a scale of 1-10, we’d give it a 5.
The movie is rated PG-13.

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