The movie HER.
This is not a movie review. This is also not a critique.
The movie, as most of you would have seen, delves into the futuristic relationship between a lonely, overtly moustache(d), Leonard (from The Big Bang Theory) look alike and his OS. The sexy voiced OS, the characters, the story, the ambience leads to the movie being an aesthetic treat. The tasteful colorization of emotions, the ethic shattering patterns of their sociable ties is imaginable. One can visualize the future where intuitive technology attempts a solution for loneliness. It is the perfect example of an idea creating a demand and then the supply.
Technology is changing the way people connect. The generation today prefers to laugh over IM chats on their phones with distant friends rather than those sitting on the dinner table with them. Miniaturization of devices has turned tiny electronic screens into televisions and books. One no longer has to walk to the computer to make a video call. They can instead initiate one even in the sanctity of their traffic stuck cars. Geography is no longer a hindrance. Cost is another hindrance being conquered with cheaper, faster, cooler products occupying our drawers. However, is the voice controlled technology relatable in the near future?
My Samsung S3 “Hi Honey..” command seldom activates the sexy voice control. She also opens up a web browser search for “Dobby withered” when I ask for “Dubai’s weather”. God has blessed me with my beloved Indian accent, so my “everybody” sounds like “yevrybuddy”. Also, in this proposed future, I doubt my privates would be excited on hearing Rakhi Sawant’s “Jejus” voice on my Indianized OS1 from this movie. Therefore, I really hope such technology is generalizable across geographic and cultural constraints as I would much rather have Meryl Streep as my OS1 than Justin Beiber.
Without taking apart the movie piece by piece, I want to document a few observations. No Samantha, it is not cool if your intuitively evolving program dictates you to cough, sneeze or fart in my headpiece, however real that would make you. I would also really like you to physically make or get coffee to me rather than making me do all the hard work. I am essentially going to pay for this OS1 to make my work easy and dirty talking will in fact result in a significant increase my work load.
Kudos on the surrogacy idea though which seems to have been given a considerable thought, in what could be classified as an attempt to promote and legalize prostitution in future. We also need to pack the gent’s ability to share deep and wide range of emotional feelings, into a huge cardboard box, and sink it into the Mariana Trench with a tonne of stone. Last night I spent a wonderfully happy evening only because of the Arsenal’s 4-1 win against Everton, despite also enjoying home made chicken curry with my best friend. I am not suggesting that all males across the planet need to have the same spoon sized emotional container, but talking in really long verbal sentences about our feelings is really not our thing. I remember sitting in front of the tele for 6 hours watching a world cup cricket match with my best friend and only throwing peanuts at it every time we lost a wicket. I was sad then. But we did not share that with anyone. Not even with each other. I don’t think I will share that with an OS1 too.
I will also not play a holographic, short alien-ish android running game where I have to make hand gestures like a squirrel suffering from leprosy to make it run at a pace which would even shame Yokozuna on a snail.
I will not introduce the OS1 as my GF to my extremely hot ex-wife who wants a divorce. I would also be scared to introduce her to my little daughter for she might call elderly rescue.
With all the technology at my disposal, I will not use a safety pin to keep the phone-like-device in its place in my shirt’s breast pocket to keep its camera steady, despite obvious man boob troubles.
I also don’t quite understand why the OS calls her lover by his entire first name Theodore. The only explanation I could muster up would be her reluctance to associate him with Arsenal’s perpetually substandard Theo Walcott.
Fashion in the movie raises more eyebrows. Quite why Theodore wears his pants on his nipples is unexplained. Maybe it goes with his ancient name. But other male characters wear the same quirky clothes too which makes me fear the future. Why he would need a zip as long as The Great Wall of China is dumb-ening. Maybe it is directly proportional to his emotional diameter. Anyway it sure is a shame that future technology is unable to manufacture smarter clothes which does not mean we should max out our credit cards yet considering this as the peak of the fashion industry.
Among other anomalies like Theo’s friend using a tiny monitor instead of a television, tapping on invisible controls on the monitor’s stand rather than voice controlling it, the movie is a refreshing step towards introducing us to a world with lesser relationships and more emotions.
The stand out point for me in the movie was the scene in which, the lady Theo is on a date with, asks him if he is going to act like a jerk and not see her again before they engage in quite pre-historic alleyway shagging despite being in future. It defines the movie. Where we crave for technology today, we will yearn for emotional high with real relationships in future.
PS: I had hoped to gain insights into the female mind after getting to know the movie name. I now know how much to share with women.
-The Grouch
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