The Professor's Daughter (2007) Online

I just saw THE PROFESSOR'S DAUGHTER at the Wisconsin Film Festival, where it was received with warm, enthusiastic, sincere applause, so the audience liked it, clearly.

But ... I must've missed something. I don't get it. We're given a fairly standard sci-fi template for a story that's been told numerous times before -- the dedicated scientist tinkering with a computer that's on the verge of achieving virtual self-awareness ... It's well-scripted, well-acted, with at least four engaging characters -- the professor, his ex-wife, his sidekick or star student, and his daughter. I really can't fault any of the work here, but I'm not sure what it all adds up to.

As someone who's seen a lot of science fiction movies, THE PROFESSOR'S DAUGHTER establishes a familiar but always intriguing premise, and then ... it's over. If there was a new or different 'riff' on the standard artificial intelligence story line, if there was something added or different here from a dozen films that have told similar stories, it eluded me. It was, basically, the first fifteen minutes of a pretty good sci-fi movie, but it ends without distinguishing itself ...