This film has high aspirations and gives the viewer plenty to think about (both good and not so good) but the story's execution by the director is a mixed bag that has rightly given this film it's cult status. Story is about Rosetta Stone (Tilda Swinton) who's a scientist in biotechnology and she's made three computer clones of herself by downloading her DNA. The three clones are Ruby, Marinne, and Olivia (all played by Swinton) and they live in Rosetta's computer but at night Ruby sneaks out into the real world as a hooker and collects sperm samples from men which she takes back to make tea with that refuels them.
*****SPOILER ALERT***** The men that have had encounters with Ruby all become impotent and get a rash on their forehead resembling a barcode which prompts Agent Hopper (James Urbaniak) to investigate and it leads to Rosetta whom he quarantines. Meanwhile, a nerdy and virginal copy-shop guy named Sandy (Jeremy Davies) meets Ruby and they talk of how difficult intimacy is and leads to them falling in love.
This film is directed by Lynn Hershman-Leeson who is making her second feature film effort after "Conceiving Ada" (also with Swinton) and while she shows great promise in her ideas it's the manner in which her films are told that comes under scrutiny. I'm definitely not one that wants a script to be obvious and dumbed down for general audiences (God forbid) but I do believe that this story could have been a tad more self explanatory. It does take a concentrated effort to follow some of this story but I do think that if viewers stick with it they might find enough substance to keep them interested. One is the casting of actress Karen Black as a transsexual private eye which has become typical in some of the roles in her career. Leeson's film does have an interesting look to it not because it was shot on high-definition video but just a uniqueness from the bar that Ruby ventures to and the living quarters that the three clones live in. None of this means much without the performance of Swinton who's presence alone is worthy enough to give this a look and she does an exceptional job of giving all four of her characters a distinctive persona of they're own. The films script asks enough interesting questions about making copies in our own image and what people really want (or need) in terms of intimacy but the end result is a film that's amusing but comes across slightly cockeyed.
*****SPOILER ALERT***** The men that have had encounters with Ruby all become impotent and get a rash on their forehead resembling a barcode which prompts Agent Hopper (James Urbaniak) to investigate and it leads to Rosetta whom he quarantines. Meanwhile, a nerdy and virginal copy-shop guy named Sandy (Jeremy Davies) meets Ruby and they talk of how difficult intimacy is and leads to them falling in love.
This film is directed by Lynn Hershman-Leeson who is making her second feature film effort after "Conceiving Ada" (also with Swinton) and while she shows great promise in her ideas it's the manner in which her films are told that comes under scrutiny. I'm definitely not one that wants a script to be obvious and dumbed down for general audiences (God forbid) but I do believe that this story could have been a tad more self explanatory. It does take a concentrated effort to follow some of this story but I do think that if viewers stick with it they might find enough substance to keep them interested. One is the casting of actress Karen Black as a transsexual private eye which has become typical in some of the roles in her career. Leeson's film does have an interesting look to it not because it was shot on high-definition video but just a uniqueness from the bar that Ruby ventures to and the living quarters that the three clones live in. None of this means much without the performance of Swinton who's presence alone is worthy enough to give this a look and she does an exceptional job of giving all four of her characters a distinctive persona of they're own. The films script asks enough interesting questions about making copies in our own image and what people really want (or need) in terms of intimacy but the end result is a film that's amusing but comes across slightly cockeyed.