Surrogates

Surrogates Velma lives with her family on Cape Cod, where she attempts to successfully blend in with the normal folk. She is extrememly busy as a contributor to New England Mamas where they have four seasons, six states – and a wicked lot ‘o mamas as well as Blog Nosh Magazine where she is the Editor of the Art & Design Channel Satisfying your craving for fresh voices and delicious content. Not to mention her own personal work of art A Smeddling Kiss.

Sometimes all you want in a movie is a little escapism, you know? After a hard week, my husband and I decided to go see “Surrogates.” Even though the reviews were not very enthusiastic, it turned out to be a nice little mix of action, emotion and mystery. It was not deep, challenging, or steeped in special effects – but it was better than I expected, like a bottle of wine you randomly grab on the way to dinner at a friend’s which turns out to go perfectly with the food they are serving.

Bruce Willis is a cop in a future where everyone stays home in their high-tech recliners, plugged into artificial “surrogates” which go about their business in the world. Most of humanity has adopted this new way of life, and crime and disease have become practically extinct. All the characters look airbrushed and slick, and it is jarring when you see the actors playing “real” humans. The plot of the movie centers around a “super-taser” weapon which can disable not only the surrogate but kill the person operating the surrogate as well, and Bruce is on the job. You can pretty much see where the story is going the whole time, but that didn’t detract from the movie for me. Let me just say that I pretty much enjoy Bruce Willis in everything, even dogs like “Armageddon.” That squinty-smiley-”Yeah, that sucks but I’m still gonna have to kill you” thing he’s got going on works for me. I also enjoyed Rhada Mitchell as his partner and Rosamund Pike as his wife, although I am a huge “Pride & Prejudice” junkie and it was disconcerting to see Jane Bennett as a depressed robot.

The action scenes and special effects are pretty formulaic, although I liked the car chase toward the end where the premise is that Bruce Willis is the only one who can get hurt. What I really enjoyed, apart from Bruce, is the contrast between the surrogates and the dumpy and wrinkled humans who look like they need a hot shower. There is a not-terribly-original message in this movie about real people participating in real lives, with all the mess and heartbreak that involves, but it’s a positive message in the end. I’d recommend this as a good couples movie – just enough of everything to keep everybody happy.

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