Surrogates
By
Victoria Alexander
FilmsInReview.com

Harbinger of what should be coming.

We all have avatars (from the Sanskrit word for "a form of self") now. Some of us even have a three-dimensional model with definitive personalities we use in computer games; and, more commonly, kinky names we use on adult sites as we troll for sex (The Craigslist Killer's username "sexaddict5385" comes to mind).

Some movie stars have character alter-egos they become identified with. (Did Sean Connery ever free himself from James Bond?) Singers have popularized using alternate personalities (Christina Aguilera used to roll out the sexually provocative "Xtina". Beyonce has her alter "Sasha Fierce". And who can forget Garth Brooks' mocked alter Chris Gaines?)

"Surrogates" takes the truth of fat, old men online posing as young, hot male models in chat rooms and pushes the concept into the future. People have "surrogates" who represent them in the real world, while they stay hooked up in a recliner to a device that allows them to relate to others as their ideal self. Everyone has superpowers as their "alter". With everyone living a hedonistic life without consequences, there is no crime.

Start saving up. This is coming and we want it.

All we really want to do is eat, have sex, and not walk anywhere.

So, "Surrogates" is about the future where 99% of the world population is not behind a computer monitor but unwashed in their pajamas living as their surrogate via brain impulses. A perfect robotic representation of the ideal you does all the stuff you want to do and the hard work you don't want to do.

When a surrogate is murdered and its human host dies as a result of a brain aneurysm, FBI agents Greer (Bruce Willis) and Peters (Radha Mitchell) are given the case. The surrogate and human (the surgo-human combo) happens to be the son of the inventor of surrogates, Canter (James Cromwell).

The company Canter founded has dumped him. He's bitter but, as the inventor, he has secured for himself some perks not sanctioned by the government.

No good deed goes unpunished and there are some humans who want to be obese and refuse to have a surrogate. They want to live in a surrogate-free world. They have been placed in ghetto-reservations without any technology. The anti-surrogate movement is led by The Prophet (Ving Rhames), an angry man who is "The Enemy of Beauty".

We don't know much about the human Peters, but the human Greer is suffering. His son was killed in an auto accident and his human wife Maggie (Rosamund Pike) has barricaded herself in her room. Maggie's surrogate lives out a sexy, perfect life without a care in the world. Greer wants the aging, unkempt Maggie instead.

Slumming with a human is the next big thrill. Greer wants to grieve with the real Maggie. Surgo-Maggie is too defiant. She talks back!

Greer's surrogate is destroyed and he is taken off the case. Without a government-issued surrogate, Greer has to walk around the real world. He doesn't know how to do it. He has forgotten how to walk!

"Surrogates" comes from the graphic novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele. Did they really give Greer so much angst or did screenwriters John Brancato and Michael Ferris add that for the star's character dimension? Did Willis want to act? So we have Geer yearning for humanity instead of celebrating his surrogate's great hair and body by Bowflex.

When William Goldman was writing Steve McQueen's "Tom Horn", he wanted to give McQueen's character some depth and nuance, with an internal conflict that he had to overcome. McQueen said no, telling Goldman, "I don't want to be the guy who learns. I want to be the guy who knows."

Directed by Jonathan Mostow, "Surrogates" has a glossy sheen and high-voltage soundtrack (often, for me, a troubling sign). While the writers gloss over flaws %u2013 it's a movie not a treatise on human rights - the premise is so seductive that you make accommodations for the fuzzy logic and plot holes.

My weekly column, "The Devil's Hammer," is posted every Monday. The Devil's Hammer on FTB. If you would like to be included on my private distribution list for a weekly preview, just email me at masauu@aol.com.

Victoria Alexander lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and answers every email. You can contact Victoria directly at masauu@aol.com.