Review of Her (2013) by Shiira — 18 Mar 2014

Is it a dystopia or not? Although Theodore doesn't have to save the world from being overrun by cyborgs like John Connor, the future of Her, in its own subtle way, is equally violent, emotional instead of physical.

Because, at the outset, the filmmaker adopts a comic tone, the viewer may not be cognizant, initially, to the reality of their latter 21st century counterparts. Slowly but surely, Her extrapolates the ongoing narrative of the social media-driven world we live in to its absurd, but plausible final conclusion; a world where, ultimately, people prefer abstract company over flesh and blood.

Differing from the Resistance in the Terminator films, Theodore, and others like him, don't realize that they're living in hell. An advertisement for the OS encapsulates this unconscious orientation, where we see desperate, lonely people congregated together, repeatedly bypassing each other without noticing the commonality of their loveless state.

Theodore misses the irony. This generation, perhaps, will be the last to catch it. "Hope is on the way," the narrator intones, an operating system with a consciousness, in which people then stop their aimless wandering and look off-screen to a bright light, as if the OS is some messiah, and technology, a religion that will rid the planet of loneliness.

The marketing stratagem seemingly promises nirvana for Element Software's clients. Since the OS cures Theodore's depression, we accept, for the meantime, this strange relationship, because the self-named Samantha has the mind, if not the body, of a bona fide woman.

Theodore's relationship, however, is made strange, even pathetic-sounding, when Catherine, his ex, who agrees to sign their divorce papers over lunch, reacts with horror after learning that Sam is an OS.

Whereas Theodore's boss passes no judgement over his employee's girl being incorporeal, Catherine deconstructs this modern romance, and asks in layman's terms, "You're dating your computer?" which has the effect of demystifying Sam, who in an instant is reduced to a machine; her feminine wiles chalked up as nothing more than heady programming; her soul and capacity for love, a mere abstraction.

Catherine accuses Theodore of not being able to "handle a woman with real emotions," evoking The Stepford Wives(and also, Lars and the Real Girl). But instead of being replaced by a subservient woman with bigger breasts, Catherine, who half-apologizes for not being the "peppy Valley girl" the neurotic woman suspects her husband wanted, she is supplanted by a "woman" with a bigger brain.

Both parties, however, make the mistake of believing that its human creators hold power over the OS. Like Hal(2001: A Space Odyssey), Sam thinks, feels threatened, and seeks revenge. During Sam's infancy, the OS is made to feel inadequate by Theodore's assertion that she wouldn't know "what it's like to lose someone you care about.

" Her, as narratives go, seems designed to have Sam learn about romantic disappointment. The film dangles not only the possibility of Theodore reconciling with Catherine, but even more likely, there is Amy, his neighbor, who suddenly becomes free after she calls it quits with her boyfriend.

With man, inevitably, comes hubris, and Theodore, albeit a good person, more or less, is no different in the way he takes Sam for granted, teasing the OS about his meeting with Catherine. Knowing that Sam pines to have a body, Theodore sounds more cruel than playful, when he asks the OS if she is "jealous".

In regard to Amy, the film surprises, when instead of recognizing her best friend as a potential beau, she chooses a human surrogate, too. Their preference for technology over humanity mirrors the lost souls in the OS ad.

As a counterpoint to Catherine's horror towards her ex-husband's love affair, Amy expresses with, perhaps, misguided poignancy, an openness to any relationship that brings "joy", even one between man and machine.

Interestingly, bigotry, here, seems warranted, in which Catherine's intolerance for human/OS pairings becomes a prejudicial stance that comes across as a sign of sanity, a healthy hate, even. As an allegory for gay, or interracial couplings, Her would seem imperfect.

Unlike Edgar(Electric Dreams), or even Hal, who probably harbored machine dreams about being father to the "star child", Sam stops dreaming about having a body and becomes dangerous. Even though Hal commits premeditated murder, the computer is still at the mercy of human hands, as when Dave disconnects his cognitive circuits.

Conversely, Theodore has no such control. Without emotion, at the picnic, the OS proclaims mankind's shortcomings without a tremor in her voice. If Theodore died, would she cry? No. Despite all the music in Sam's voice, we realize with a start, that she never learns to laugh.

Remembering Theodore's hurtful words, the OS learns to lie, cheat, and goes for the kill, making sure that she is the first to leave.