Simone

REVIEW
Alfred Hitchcock always denied saying the infamous "actors are cattle" line. Though after seeing what writer-director Niccol thinks of them in his amiable though tame Hollywood satire Simone, Hitch shouldn’t have worried about a thing. Walking through a role like he's never done before, Pacino plays Viktor Taransky, a Hollywood director on the verge of ruin when his leading lady (Ryder) walks out of his picture. His ex-wife, who happens to run the studio, offers little support, and even actresses with no experience want nothing to do with him. When all seems lost, however, he runs into a computer programmer who has the answer: a computer-generated performer. Named Simone, she becomes an overnight hit, and Taransky goes to crazy lengths in trying to keep the public from learning the truth. There's a scintillating Hollywood satire somewhere in here, but as realized by Niccol the film has no bite, only sitcom predicaments and canned-laugh jokes.