Word: spielbergism
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...Spielberg's hands, twists the notion of the Star Child: the nonhuman is more human, and in the sweetest way. All right, it's because man--playing God, playing tricks--programmed him to love, even as other film robots, like the Terminator, are designed to destroy. In the A.I. world, robots are made to give pleasure and, in David's case, offer joy. Gigolo Joe is a sex machine, David a love machine. The toy boy's sole purpose is to give and elicit affection. His obsession (in Kubrick's terms) or dream (in Spielberg's) requires...
That's pure Spielberg: the story of a stranded or abandoned child searching for signposts to home, for the reunion of the nuclear family. This Hansel-and-Gretel motif has been playing from his first feature, The Sugarland Express (two young marrieds struggle to rescue their child from foster parents), through half a dozen other films he has directed or produced (Poltergeist, Back to the Future, The Goonies, Empire of the Sun, Hook, Saving Private Ryan). That's a pretty full gallery of lost boys and girls. And what is that little parchment-pated E.T. but a precocious kid, light...
...could be seen as a work of artificial emotions and genuine cinematic intelligence. It is more than that because Spielberg laid the burden of the film on Osment like a backpack, and the young trouper carries it. A meticulous actor, Osment made sure that "whenever [David] turns a corner, he turns it the same number of steps every time, the same movements. And the eyes were important. Turn the eyes first, then the head. Don't blink...
...well, sixth sense for the hint of ecstasy or despair in a glance. Inhabiting such a character, letting humanity seep into him: that's not artifice. It's a fine actor's art, and enough to make any mother love him. Not to mention his two fathers, Spielberg and Kubrick...
...complete interviews with Steven Spielberg, Jude Law and Haley Joel Osment about A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, log on to time.com