Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) wins a rare opportunity of a
one week session at the home of Nathan (Oscar Isaac), the reclusive internet
billionaire who founded Blue Book, the company for which he works. Once he
arrives he realizes just how isolated the home is, with the only other person
being Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno), Nathan’s maid who does not speak English. Nathan
explains the need for this seclusion: he has been working on an AI humanoid called
Ava (Alicia Vikander) and needs Caleb to perform a Turing Test (where
an AI must convince its tester that it is human). Over the course of his chats with Ava she expresses her longings and desires, as well
as revealing dark secrets about Nathan. Caleb’s thoughts become blurred by the
effectiveness of Ava and the realisation that Nathan is not completely
honest with him, leading to decisions that have unexpected consequences.
Vikander’s performance leads the film in style and content.
Being a skeletal machine with the exception of her face, the expectation is for something cold and
calculating, but instead the humanity seeps through the small window. The film
has a stripped back yet highly polished design, laying bare the actors and
the writing, leaving no room to hide. Added to this is the film's working within
neo-noir conventions, with Ava the alluring femme fatale to Caleb’s sole
detective, and Nathan as the corrupt, untrustworthy authority that holds all
the cards. As each hand is dealt and each truth revealed another turn
diminishes those assertions until the unexpected results take their toll. All
the ideas swirling around, from the nature of intelligence to role of
inspiration, longing, desire and the deliberateness of actions, work within this thriller framework.
Suspenseful and highly intelligent, Ex Machina makes
the most of its minimalist setting with ever expansive ideas.
Andreas
