Alex Garland, who wrote the screenplay for Danny Boyle’s multiple award-winning horror flick 28 Days Later, has produced a compelling sci-fi thriller, Ex Machina, for his directorial debut. It opens this weekend at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center.
Don’t look for slam-bam special effects or spectacular car/spaceship chases in this one. Ex Machina depends on the interaction between CEO genius Nathan (Oscar Isaac of Inside Llewyn Davis) and Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). A program coder, Nathan has selected to test Ava (Alicia Vikander), the artificial intelligence (A.I.) cyborg he has created. Ex Machina has a fitting title, making the allusion to the classical Greek dramatic device deus ex machina, in which the gods intervene to bring resolution to the plot of a play.
The question Nate hopes to answer through Caleb is whether or not Ava has evolved beyond machine-based artificial intelligence to experience truly human qualities. The first half of the movie focuses on intricate conversations between Nathan and Caleb, along with those Caleb has with Ava to see whether she’s evolved.
Computer geeks will have no problem following the dialogue, although the rest of us may flounder a bit. By the second half of the movie, the suspense builds, and even the most computer-illiterate viewers will find themselves hanging on every word and scene.
One of the suggestive devices the director uses is crosscuts between Nathan’s remote, futuristic “lab” home and the lushly beautiful vistas of woods and mountains where it is set. Caleb learns Ava has never been outside the building. Is this what she most longs for? A number of other puzzling elements begin to pile up.
What does it mean that Nathan lifts weights and drinks heavily? Caleb’s meetings with Ava always take place with a glass wall separating them, reminiscent of the way prison visitors are separated from inmates. Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno) appears periodically, apparently as Nathan’s maid, but why is it she never speaks? The power frequently fails, necessitating a backup generator, and when it does, Nathan, who has cameras everywhere, can’t hear Caleb and Ava’s conversation. When Ava begins wearing dresses and wigs, does that signify she is evolving into human status? Why does Caleb slice open his arm and smear blood on the mirror in his room? Why are the cyborgs in Ex Machina women? Does that make them inferior or superior to the men in the film?
Like the pieces of an intricate puzzle, these elements slowly fit together. Then what happens to Nathan, Caleb, Ava, and even Kyoko seems both surprising and inevitable.
Ex Machina, Friday, May 8, and Saturday, May 9, 7:30 pm; Martha’s Vineyard Film Center, Vineyard Haven. For tickets and information on this and other film center films, see mvfilmsociety.com.