This is not E.T., but A.I., and it’s a whole different movie. Haley Joel Osment(the “Sixth Sense” kid, not Donny’s son) stars as David, the robotic boy programmed to love. That’s the short version of it anyway.

Here’s a few details – “in the year 2525”, or something like that, global warming has screwed up the earth and flooded many major cities. The net result you need to know is that people are limited as to the number of times they may reproduce. Monica and Henry have a boy named Martin, but he’s been comatose for five years. So to snap Monica out of it, Henry brings home David. He’s the wonder child of Professor Hobby, played by William Hurt. He works for the robot factory, but so far they have only produced machines that perform functions, like nannies and gardeners and cooks. Or, in the case of the one played by Jude Law, gigolos.

David is special. The professor has created the kid with the capacity to love and the whole concept is debated rather academically as the movie opens. From there, we go slowly and carefully as Monica goes from being creeped out by the kid to accepting him, and then to, yes, even loving him. At first I thought this was a cheap shot at motherhood as Monica is depicted as an emotional mess, but you’ve got to hand it Haley Joel. The kid just makes you love him. This is one extraordinary child actor. And check out that robotic teddy bear that pals around with him. “Teddy” could have his own movie. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. They make such a cute couple. You can even forgive the movie as it goes off into “Pinnocchio” territory. Yes, the boy wants to become real. But you root for him and that’s in large measure due to Haley Joel and that darn bear.

This movie has the Spielberg touch all right. We get a very impressive, well thought out vision of the future with all the right touches. The only question I had is “will that many people still be wearing glasses?”

Eventually David and the Jude Law robot (Joe the Gigilo) team up to try and find a way to make David a real boy and I’m suddenly thinking “Wizard of Oz” (Joe makes a good scarecrow/tin man hybrid) . The movie lost me for a brief time at this point as it seemed like an excuse to show off fantastic visions of a future Las Vegas and Manhattan. I felt like the story had to take a time out for some special effects. But I hung in there because I had to know how this was going to end. Can David end up a real boy?

The last twenty minutes of the movie brings it all together in sensational fashion as the movie steps out of its fairy tale mode and back onto a logical path. It all really got me thinking even beyond the questions of love and human desire and wish fulfillment. That’s all stuff I’m not even sure I can express here. But as the movie ends up another two thousand years into the future, I did think how that movie theatre and all of us will just rot away and what does it all matter? We do obsess over trivial everyday things, don’t we? But the simple thing David desires, love, and will stop at nothing to get, is something most of us take for granted.

Does that all sound depressing? “A.I.” is not a feel good movie but it sure is one about feelings. I give it a “9” on the scale. The best I’ve seen so far this year.