Ex Machina (2015) * * *

Directed by:  Alex Garland

Starring:  Domnhall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac

Ex Machina is the type of film Stanley Kubrick would have been proud of.    It takes place on an isolated research facility owned by a brilliant, but strange scientist/billionaire named Nathan (Isaac) in the middle of lush forests and cool waterfalls.     The only way back to civilization is a helicopter.    When a character asks when they will be reaching Nathan's property, the pilot answers, "We have been flying over it for the last two hours."  

Nathan and his facility exude ominous vibes.    Research is ostensibly conducted, but is there something more sinister going on?    A visitor named Caleb (Gleeson) , who works for Nathan's company as a top-notch analyst, is about to find out.    Nathan brought him to the facility to test out how closely his latest artificial intelligence robot named Ava (Vikander) can pass for human.    Caleb conducts the Turing test, which was featured in The Imitation Game (2014) and is used to study how "human" robots or computers can be.    Ava is part robot and certainly part computer, but is she human?    Or can she pass for human?    Caleb attempts to find out, while Nathan eerily observes via cameras.   

Things are clearly not as they seem, or are they?    What is the extent of Nathan's research?   Who can be trusted?    These are questions that are at the heart of Ex Machina.     The facility itself is cold and sterile, as are the living quarters.    Ava not surprisingly comes across as more human than her human counterparts.    Is she simply an intelligent robot?    Can she feel or even fall in love?    Her interactions with Caleb suggest that she can.    Can she manipulate or is she the manipulator?   Both are possibilities.   

Thank goodness Ex Machina does not devolve into a simple love story in which a human falls for a robot or vice-versa.    It is a movie that depends on its atmosphere and those eerie feelings that the humans project.    We think we know that Caleb is a manipulated bystander and that Nathan is a mad scientist looking to dominate the world.     The movie alters reality several times, so we question our own feelings about the characters.

Oscar Isaac plays Nathan as a fitness-obsessed, lonely near-alcoholic who may or may not be up to something more.    This is another brilliant performance by Isaac, whose roles lately have specialized in controlled rage and wit.    He doesn't seem like the type of actor who can play dumb.   Isaac's Nathan is scary not because of anything he does, but because of what he may be capable of doing.   Gleeson's Caleb is not totally naive about his situation.    He senses something is off, but can't put a finger on it.    Gleeson doesn't show us all of the cards, which allows for some growth.     Vikander is a benevelant presence with a sweet face that we believe instantly.    She is in a sense a prisoner of her creator.    Her love angle with Gleeson doesn't quite work, but then we discover that their relationship may not be as it seems.  

The review of the plot and characters may seem vague, but it also underlines the film's strength.    In a movie in which one character conducts a Turing test on another, we are left to figure out who is human and who is truly the robot.