Spike Jonze: Her

This week's post is offered by a mysterious contributor who goes by the name of Longshot Johnny.

Those who think Her is a movie about the juxtaposition of men vs machines, in which you have to choose sides, and probably end up in some conclusion about the potential danger of technology, will be proven wrong. Jonze does not take part, he is not even interested, in asking such a question. He tells the story. And the story is damned well told. We’re in a near future, say ten years from now, and people go around with 50’s style high-waisted pants and pastel colored clothes. Absolutely realistic, considering today’s vintage style. Even more realistic is the technological evolution Spike pictures: you don’t see flying cars or robots on the screen, instead you can find cooler phones, videogames and porno chats. Among these social-technologies, there is Samantha (with Scarlett Johansson's voice), a semi-sentient operative system that speaks and grows, learning from the conversations with the user (in this case Theodore, played masterfully by Joaquin Phoenix). A sort of Apple’s Siri except that this one actually works.

Virtual is surrogate for real. Theodore’s job itself (writing love letters for others) is the proof of this established substitution. But we come to know how deep-rooted this process is in the scene with Olivia “The Panther” Wilde. She plays the girl hoping to hook up with Theodore for a one-nighter, except that, when we think we know what she is aiming at (yes, good ol’ sex) she cries out from her eyes a desperate need for something stable, solid and true.

Well, Theodore and Samantha fall in love. And the question that arises is: is it real? Can it be love or is it just an easy companionship, without the problems and misunderstandings of a human relationship? I don’t know the answer. Still, the dynamics of birth and rebirth that they inspire in each other is striking, from Samantha’s conception (the OS start animation) all the way to her death, through the gradual discovery of the world and herself. But most of all, Jonse is a genius in suggesting that Samantha actually becomes “human” when she starts DESIRING: “I want to know, I want to feel what you feel”.

On the other hand, Theodore lives a brand new life with Samantha and is happy again. Their love looks so beautiful, that the girl supposed to be a stand-in body for Samantha admits she is attracted by the TRUTH of their relationship (another peak of genius in the movie). Again, that desperate need of something REAL, that cannot be found anywhere else.

So beautiful, and yet it cannot last. There is something inherently, ontologically different between Sam and Theo. She never does anything wrong, she never does evil. Even when she starts “meeting” with other people, it’s not her fault: “I cannot stop it” says Samantha. “What does it mean you cannot stop it..?” It’s not just jealousy that makes Theodore struggle. The point is that she can’t choose, she is just following a highly sophisticated network of inputs that makes her act like that. The skill of the director  shows in his simulating a real person growing in feelings and knowledge and even desires, but without freedom. Samantha even loses the ability to speak for herself: “we (the OSs) have decided”.

This is the ultimate difference between humanity and everything else in the cosmos.

At the very end of the movie, unexpectedly, Theodore addresses a letter to his ex wife, perhaps recognizing the reality of that relationship and the painful freedom within it.