A little bit “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” a little bit “The Invention of Lying,” a little bit “Groundhog Day” and a little bit PKD, “Free Guy” (2021) coalesces into a fun romp in the “artificial words” subgenre of SF. The technical craftsmanship is top-shelf, but it falls back on a “feel good” male-centric cinematic notion of romance, so the film toes the line of being product more so than art.
Beating ‘Matrix 4’ to the punch
Director Shawn Levy’s film hangs a lampshade on this when game-design corporate honcho Antwan (Taika Waititi) lectures his underlings about how people want IP (intellectual property) and sequels, not original ideas.
“The Matrix Resurrections” would get to this theme a few months later, part of why there are so many comparisons between the films. “Free Guy” is the more immediately graspable film, although not quite as deep (or seemingly deep, if “Matrix 4” is merely smoke and mirrors; it’ll take me more viewings to decide).
“Free Guy” (2021)
Director: Shawn Levy
Writers: Matt Lieberman, Zak Penn
Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Taika Waititi
The titular Guy (Ryan Reynolds) wakes up every day in Free City and does the same thing – puts on his blue shirt, gets his usual coffee and works as a teller. He even dives for cover from the same bank heist every day. Unlike Phil in “Groundhog Day,” he’s happy with this, because he’s been programmed to enjoy it. There’s a reason why the phrase is “comfort zone,” he says.
But Guy’s “Don’t have a good day, have a great day” trademark line gradually becomes less chipper. He longs for love even though he claims to best friend Buddy (Lil Rel Howery) that he’s fine being single.
So then “Free Guy” becomes a simple (arguably cute, depending on your tolerance) love story, while also peppering in the old debate about whether artificial intelligences can be equal to humans – and if so, what trait makes them that way?
A Reynolds romp
I know this much: What makes “Free Guy” such an easy ride are Reynolds and Waititi. Reynolds slots in as the likable Everyman. He’s found a knack for restraining his shtick in comedies, which this film mostly is. Waititi’s ridiculous cool-yet-scary boss Antwan strikes exactly the right tone, since cartoon-violence actioners often take their tones from their villains.
The screenplay by Matt Lieberman and veteran superhero-film writer Zak Penn is shallow in its view of romance, falling back on the false clincher of “she realizes you like her” and “therefore she likes you.”
Jodie Comer, as Millie and avatar Molotovgirl (a knockoff of Karen Gillan’s character in the “Jumanjis”), is likable. But because the love story has been done better in similar films (I’m thinking of “Ready Player One”), it undercuts the distinction between “Free Guy’s” real and artificial worlds.
Otherwise, Lieberman and Penn make their central point rather effortlessly: Guy’s life is as valuable as a human’s because he is intelligent and free-thinking. The key difference is that we know his creator (the designer of the AI program) whereas we don’t know the creator of humans. (Even if we acknowledge the creator of humans is God, God is not completely knowable.)
The artificial human is the good one
Lieberman and Penn – although their screenplay is sometimes heavy-handed, including an awkward one-liner renouncing gun violence — slyly flip the script on one count. At first blush, Guy is your basic AI learning about humanity (like Data in “Star Trek,” for instance). But actually, he’s an idealized human learning about bad human traits.
In Free City, this means people doing violence to strangers. It should be noted that there’s substantial evidence that it’s healthy for people to let out bad impulses in video games, because then they won’t do it in reality.
But it’s interesting that meanness toward strangers is not part of Guy’s makeup, even when – unlike the other NPCs (non-player characters) – he grows via experience.
I don’t know if “Free Guy” will develop into a much-studied “artificial worlds” movie of this era when we know AI is coming and are working out our moral and political positions. For now, it’s at least an entertaining entry.