“Able Edwards” is a highly unusual film. An odd blend of “Citizen Kane,” “The Truman Show,” and the issues surrounding cloning and corporate property, it simulatenously entertains and makes you think.
Set in the future, after a biological contaminent has rendered Earth uninhabitable and exiled humanity to an orbiting network of civipods, “Able Edwards” follows the lawsuit by Rosemary Edwards, widow of Able Marion Edwards Beta, against the immense Edwards Corporation. Edwards Beta was a clone of the original Able Edwards, a Walt-Disney-style figure whose works were the origin of the company that bears his name. The testimony of various people for the lawsuit provides the storyline, which traces the development of the clone and his career as the head of the Edwards Corporation.
Filmed entirely in front of a blue screen and using a great deal of makeup and digital effects, “Able Edwards” is on the cutting edge of cinema. Although at times the physical/digital blend is imperfect, it doesn’t get in the way of the storytelling in the slightest. This is a fascinating film, both in terms of storytelling and filmmaking.
Screens 3/3, 9:15 pm (San Jose Rep) and 3/5, 11:15 am (San Jose Rep).