By Her, a film of insurmountable depth, the work of Spike Jonze has reached perfection. It neither contains the complexity of Adaptation or Being John Malkovich, nor the simplicity of Where the Wild Things Are. It's about a very palpable subject (the destruction of human relations due to the advent of computers), and by becoming a paradoxically bitter celebration of life, forces a certain appreciation for the world around us. Powerhouse performance by Phoenix aside, who cares about Oscar eligibility? In a fair world, solely Johannson's voice should win, not an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, but Best Leading Actress.
Mo says:
MoMagic!
I liked the movie since it looks to the issue of technology and human loneliness , isolation and selfishness in modern and new way. I'm saying selfishness since it show how people are gradually going to love or to be loved by the least expense. To involve in a relationship with an high-tech intelligent partner doesn't need unnecessary efforts or challenges of usual relationships. That's why everything finally goes well and any crisis could be handled unbelievably : soft and easy. I think rather than romantic story ( not makes much sense. I like body !) the philosophy of the movie regarding the terrifying role of tech in life and the way of looking to the nature of relationships were so deep and unique meanings .
ReplyDeleteThe most disturbing concept I found in the movie, was that even though the main character chose the "easy" way of finding a perfect partner (a programmable but complex computer software), he still ended up with the exact same relationship problems he had with a regular human being: disappointment, jealousy. over-expectations, ... I saw in another film that a main character was saying we as humans are just robots, and every day we just perform tasks that are socially expected of us. "Her" is very artistically pointing out that same concept - that the AI program was no different than a real human being, and could easily replace humans. Other movies like "The Terminator" (where robots become superior to humans and revolt) or "BladeRunner" (where human and robots are indistinguishable) also come to mind. What's defined as "human", when a robot can act exactly the same as one? What's the point of marrying a human? Or divorcing a human? This movie made me dizzy with such concepts.
DeleteIt's very interesting point.I didn't go through this depth. But when it comes to this depth maybe we need to ask is there possible that one day robot can replace the human's generation if they look as intelligent as mankind is and feel the same? The last human dies and a robot with a ability to reproduction but limited and able to change based on the initial designed program during generations , so the various robots not like the clones....like the story of our creation , maybe a good sci-fi plot!
ReplyDeleteI think that's exactly why at the end the OS s were shut down: either they were becoming too advanced (they were creating other OS s), or they were on the verge of revolting against humans (similar to The Terminator). In any case, the robots were replacing humans, which makes the possible suicide of the two main characters at the end of the movie seem logical. I think this movie will be talked about for many many years.
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