Her

[skizzerflake]

Gotta think more about this one, so many influences on this movie, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, the nature of humanity, old Star Trek and Twilight Zone plots. There's a lot going on in Her, the latest movie by Spike Jonez. It's definitely worth a second viewing. Not too far out in the future, Theodore Twombly, a middling guy, finds a new "OS" that simulates a lover. Theodore (Joachin Phoenix) is sadly divorced, with a decent, but too easy job, writing heartfelt letters for people who can't write for themselves. He gets a new OS on his personal cloud with the voice of Scarlet Johannson, who "virtually" falls in love with him and he with her. She's on his PC and his mobile device, sort of a super-advanced, erotic version of Siri. What this means to this withdrawn guy has a lot to say about the role of technology in our world even now and more so as it gets more pervasive and sophisticated.

Phoenix is definitely in Oscar territory in this movie. If there's an award for an unseen voice actor and virtual character, Johansson should be there. This is a fairly quiet and slow sci-fi movie, with no serious conflict in a world that's oppressively clean and functional. No evil minions, monsters, police brutality, or future wars, just the boredom of how easy, techie and sanitized everything is. The smartest movie I've seen in a while, this is a "can't miss". On a four star scale, it's an easy five.

Her - Official Trailer (HD) Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams - YouTube

 

[darien87]

Scar Jo was on Dave the other night. Dave mentioned the guy's wearing diaper pants?

Also what's the deal with Joaquin always having a safety pin in his pockets? Is it so Samantha can see?

 

[Alex2507]

Scar Jo was on Dave the other night. Dave mentioned the guy's wearing diaper pants?

Also what's the deal with Joaquin always having a safety pin in his pockets? Is it so Samantha can see?

The thing with a safety pin might be like carrying a clean handkerchief ... it's what gentlemen do. I saw that in a movie somewhere. The safety pin would effectively 'save' a lady having a wardrobe malfunction but I'm just guessing since I haven't seen Her and as you might have guessed, I'm not a gentleman. There's one other thing the movie I saw said a gentleman was suppose to have but I forgot what was ... I think it might be an undershirt.

 

[lsiberian]

I am interested to see Adam's story on the big screen.

 

[skizzerflake]

Scar Jo was on Dave the other night. Dave mentioned the guy's wearing diaper pants?

Also what's the deal with Joaquin always having a safety pin in his pockets? Is it so Samantha can see?

I didnt see any diapers, but apparently in future LA, san-sa-belt pants with a high waist will be the fashion. So will muted fruity colors like "pumpkin". I didn't notice his other pockets, but his shirt pocket had a pin that served the purpose of allowing him to carry an iphone-like device with a camera, high up in his pocket, that was on all the time so Samantha could see where he was going.

 

[markw]

Actually, I think they stole the plot from that "Big Bang Theory" where Raj fell in love with Siri.

 

[skizzerflake]

Actually, I think they stole the plot from that "Big Bang Theory" where Raj fell in love with Siri.

There have been lots of sic-fi plots about the problems of creating something smart that you can't control (I don't want to do a spoiler), all the way back to Frankenstein. As for the variation of falling in love with an artificial creation, I'm sure that's been used both in Twilight Zone and Star Trek. I'll have to look at an episode guide for the specifics. In the case of Her, the variation is that rather than an android, it's something that looks like a distributed version of Siri, somewhat easier than an android since you only need speech, not body motion. As an IT guy, from what I see at work, much about the story isn't all that exaggerated. It's less about whether this is possible than about just how long it takes.