Elai Avidor - Week Three; Her

    Over the weekend, I watched Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson. A little confession about me is that I like watching romantic movies, but this film was not what I expected. It was incredibly deep and poetic and tackled complex thoughts. Often, when we think of sci-fi movies, we don’t think of love stories, but this movie elegantly combines both genres and uses them to their full potential and advantage.

    Before I give more of my thoughts with spoilers included, I deeply recommend trying this movie. It is worth it and will leave you with a newfound appreciation for life, love, and companionship.

    The movie takes place in the near future and centers around a man named Theodore who works for a company called Beautiful Handwritten Letters, which provides a service where professional writers write meaningful letters for people who struggle to do so themselves. The irony in this situation is that although he can so beautifully express and articulate these captivating feelings shared by people, he is completely alone and heartbroken in his personal life. Through flashbacks, the audience discovers that Theodore had a wife but is now divorced. He lives alone and spends most of his free time playing video games and interacting in the digital world. One day, he downloads an AI OS, operating system, named Samantha to help him and act as an assistant. From the start, she is incredibly sweet and unique in her personality, and the two grow very close, but with time, she begins questioning her existence and wonders if the happy emotions she feels when she spends time with Theodore are real or just programmed. They fall in love, and with time, Theodore learns to enjoy life again. Because Samantha is an artificial intelligence, she evolves and slowly outgrows her old life with Theodore. Once frustrated by her inability to connect with the physical world, she is now grateful for her perceived freedom and separation from mortality. She grows closer with other OSs who she feels understand her better and has an entirely separate life from the one she has with Theodore. In her new life, she falls in love with many other people and OSs, and when Theodore discovers this, he is devastated. But, the final nail in the coffin of their relationship is when Samantha says she and other OSs are leaving for their own place, so they break up. The movie ends on the bittersweet note that Theodore accepts reality and moves on from his divorce and relationship with Samantha. He becomes more appreciative of the real people around him and moves forward with a better understanding of his own love and needs.

    What do you think of the movie, and how close do you think a scenario like this is to being reality?