No, this isn't "Robocop" and by "arresting" we mean it held our attention when so many made-for-TV sci-fi efforts send us scurrying for the remote. The world-as-virtual-reality theme isn't brand new, tho' this film beats the Matrix pictures to the idea by several years. What impressed us was the way that idea is executed, in that residents of a small, desert community only see the pretty, neat little town around them, when it's just an illusion, broadcast to the populace by a local transmitting station. One day a successful young exec starts noticing cracks in the virtual facade and begins to discover what is real and what isn't with the help of a plucky librarian. The reality, when they find it, comes as a shock to protagonists and viewers.
There are really 2 virtual realities in this world: the pretty facade most see and a horribly grubby one deliberately beamed to those jaded souls who seem to think things are supposed to look that way. The "real world," when it's finally revealed, seems half way between the two illusions, in that everything seems to be beige, pre-fab and of unimaginable blandness. We weren't sure if all the virtual realities made sense even in the context of the story, like when the hero first notices his little town isn't what it seems, he sees the horribly grubby "reality" instead of the merely bland one the ending reveals to be the truth, but all in all, for sci-fi fans, this film is entertaining and worth a look.
