Review: 'Sheep in the Box' is a rare misfire from a master director whose AI drama feels borrowed

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Set us as preferred Celebrated Japanese writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda specializes in gentle, sentimental films about the tiny fissures that form along the foundation of families.When he’s at his best, such as with 2018’s Oscar-nominated “Shoplifters,” his stories unspool with measured ease, their lifelike flow building slowly into something larger and more profound about the bonds that connect us — and sometimes tear us apart.But when Kore-eda’s execution isn’t as assured, as is the case with his latest, all that delicacy simply floats off into the ether, rarely amounting to much more than a halfhearted shrug.

“Sheep in the Box” couldn’t be timelier in its speculative sci-fi depiction of an anxious age in which AI increasingly permeates our lives, even giving grieving parents their dead children back to them, in a fashion.But after a familiar setup, the movie stubbornly refuses to go in compelling new directions or offer fresh observations.

The film may be set in the future, but Kore-eda’s ideas feel outdated.Haruka Ayase, who starred in Kore-eda’s 2015 sibling drama “Our Little Sister,” plays Otone, an architect still devastated by the loss of her young son Kakeru two years ago.She receives a strange invitation in the mail from REbirth, a company that claims to create humanoid replicas of deceased loved ones.

Her husband, Kensuke (Daigo Yamamoto), expresses reservations about the service — “They’re hyenas cashing in on misfortune,” he insists — but Otone is resolute.In short order, an android that looks exactly like Kakeru (newcomer Rimu Kuwaki) arrives at their front door.Films ranging from “Pinocchio” to “A.I.

Artificial Intelligence” have touched on the dangers of trying to simulate life, while the more recent “M3GAN” and “Companion” satirized AI’s insidious sk...