Lets Talk About Her.

I dragged my flatmates along to go and see ‘her’ the other night. It was far too relevant to my blog topic to miss out on a post and meant I could spend my Wednesday night eating popcorn and chilling out in the Grosvenor whilst classifying it as ‘uni work’.

Her is a film about a man who falls in love with the operating system on his computer. It’s set in the not so distant future where technology has advanced to an extent that it becomes the basis of people lives; it’s a type of sci-fi we all can relate to. The film makes some bold predictions about humans and technology and how they are starting to become one.

We first meet the main character ,Theodore , whilst he’s at work, ghostwriting personalised letters for those unable to put their emotions into words – a first indication of the state of personal relations at the time. People have lost the ability to use emotion due to the developing technology. On the way home from work Theodore sees an adverts for a new advanced operating system and gets it installed. Its programmed to be tailor made uniquely for you and has advanced emotional capabilities.

We watch the as Theodore and ‘Samatha’ ( the self assigned name Theodore’s OS gives herself) grow ever closer. One minute Theodore is having functional conversations with his OS about cleaning up his inbox; the next they’re having ‘cyber sex’ in an uncomfortably long and intense scene which unfortunately is completely void of imagery; just a black screen so we can really get involved in the sexual moans from the two lovers.

The lonely and emotionally stunted Theodore grows happier around her as Samantha’s emotional capabilities also advance. But what’s ironic is Samantha’s becoming more human like- she has independent thoughts and takes on many human attributes- whilst watching you often forget she is the voice of a computer- but as she advances emotionally she realises how constrained she is without a real body- quoting the little mermaid, Samantha longs to become a ‘real girl’ ; whilst on the other side of the spectrum Theordore loses his human capabilities. He no longer interacts with friends and awkwardly messes up a first date signifying how far he has drifted from human interaction. In the film's second most toe-curling scene, Samantha organises a ‘sex surrogate’, a human figure to meet to Theodores sexual needs in a more literal way, but on meeting things go from bad to worse, he can’t deal with her physical presence, suggesting that the last thing on earth Theodore wants is a human touch.

Theodore isolates himself from the real world as he sinks ever deeper into Samantha’s cyber world. They frolic ‘together’ on the beach, cook romantic meals and go on a romantic retreat to a log cabin.

I didn’t see the ending of the film coming at all - definite twist in the already twisty lovers tale. To be honest it was a bit bizarre (as was the rest of the film) Theodore cant get ahold of Samantha one day- his world starts crashing down around him- where is she? what is she doing?- she finally responds and Theodore realizes maybe he isn’t the only person in Samantha’s life- he asks how many other people she’s speaking to, to which she responds 1000 and he then asks how many other she’s in love with and to that she responds 800- SHOCK HORROR SAMANTHA’S A SLUT!!!!

Despite some bizarre and awkward scenes Her is a good watch- it’s anything but boring and will get you thinking about the future for humans and technology. Here’s what it got me thinking about:

How will the emotional capabilities of technology progress? Will tech soon become more emotionally advanced than us? Will we lose our emotional capabilities to cyberspace?

Are our many devices acting as a void between us and the real world. Will human relations be a thing of the past?

And finally, how long is it before the first person falls into a relationship with a piece of smart tech ( I’d say I love my laptop so maybe it’s not so far off for me)