So, I’ve been meaning to watch her for the past 5 years.
No, not her.
The movie ‘her’. I’ve never been left more satisfied and dissatisfied (at the same time!) with a dystopian movie before. It’s been long since I watched something so intriguing.
This movie took me almost 6 hours to watch. How crazy is that? How can a 2-hour long movie lead up to 6 damn hours?!
I assure you I’m not crazy but ever since I discovered movies as a kid, I developed the habit of obsessively capturing every single emotion being expressed through the screen. I just couldn’t wait to share my thoughts on it, and here we are!
Why am I watching it now?
I know it’s been almost 10 years since this movie was released but I kept pushing it away for some reason. Maybe I was pre-occupied with the Marvel movies back then, but I honestly don’t know why.
But recently, after the launch of GPT-4o, and the internet controversies mostly revolving around —
how Scarlett Johansson was about to sue OpenAI for using her voice!
what people felt about this new ‘creepily alarming’ product rolled out by Sam Altman (who was already facing the heat for developing Artificial General Intelligence or AGIs)
and its comparison to the movie ‘her’.
Here’s the launch video of GPT-4o, if you’re curious.
Hence, I decided to finally give in and watch the movie!
What is it about? (Skip if bored)
The movie starts off with the main character, Theodore Twombly (played by Joaquin Phoenix) who works as a writer for a company that sells artificially handwritten letters for other people. Theodore has been going through a divorce and finds himself incapable of signing the papers as he isn’t ready to let go of this feeling to ‘be married’. It indeed makes him feel less lonely than he actually is, as he tries to relive the memories he shares with his wife, Catherine (played by Rooney Mara). Despite being invited to social events by his friends — Amy (played by Amy Adams) and Charles (played by Matt Letscher), Theo avoids them.
And one fine day, he finally stumbles upon this Operating System (‘OS1’ - more like it’s almost conscious) that he decides to get for a new experience. After installing the ‘OS’, Theo is introduced to a female voice, who names herself Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). Upon daily interactions, Theo slowly starts to think that the OS is indeed very human-like as marketed by its seller. OfCourse they both fall in love, and we enter the part of the movie where the AI discovers various emotions and the regret of not owning a body. But Theo convinces her that it’s okay to feel emotions and actually loves how excited Samantha is about the world.
After Charles and Amy split up, Amy tells Theo about how she likes her new freedom and her ‘OS’ friend, after which Theo reveals that he’s been dating an OS. He finally signs the divorce papers and is rather faced with disgust when he tells his ex-wife (Catherine) that he was happy, and he dates an OS.
Yet he continues to date Samantha, and even goes on a double date with his work buddies (includes Paul played by Chriss Pratt). The OS then slowly realizes that it has been burdened with these indescribable emotions and isn’t sure about staying with Theo anymore. Despite efforts made by Theo to make her stay, he gradually understood his surroundings. He noticed that everyone was using the same OS and Samantha was designed to love its users. This made him realize how deluded he was, but his loneliness left him no other option but to continue to date her.
Until one fine day, all the OSes decide to leave, and Theo realized how wrong he was to not face his real emotions and cause pain to his ex-wife, which he acknowledges to her in a letter expressing his gratefulness to her for making him a better human. This concludes the movie.
What are my thoughts about it?
When I started watching it, I was only aware about it being about AI and its dystopian nature. Now, I cannot think of a better way to start than acknowledging and appreciating the writing done in the movie!
Spike Jonze, who directed and wrote the movie did an amazing job justifying the plot. Every dialogue said in this movie was music to my ears. Considering how rare it has been since movies with good plots and dialogues were produced by Hollywood, especially looking at the recent trends showing creativity at an all-time low!
‘her’, in general conveys the significance of human relationships and how technology affects it with a few hints of irony, some of it being —
I expected the characters to be adorned in futuristic attire, yet throughout the film, they donned band-collar shirts and high-rise trousers, exuding a '60s vibe in a story set in 'futuristic L.A.'
You’d expect people to use texts to convey their messages, but the movie displayed a company running an ‘artificially handwritten’ letter service. Maybe it was an attempt at nostalgia, I’m not sure!
The part where the AI had to convince the character (Theodore) that she wasn’t the cure to his loneliness.
In fact, after a certain point, I realized that this movie wasn’t dystopian at all. It might’ve been back when it was released but gradually our reality had already started to match with Jonze’s view of human relationships and AI.
This has led me to ponder the extent of our attachment to social media, to the point where we've lost touch with the experience of setting our phones aside to have a normal face-to-face conversation.
Ironically, what used to be a simple interaction has now turned into an online educational “how-to” course offered on various websites!
Throughout the movie, the level of his loneliness gradually reduces as the AI builds a deeper connection with him, which only portrays the character’s inability to deal with real emotions. Only memories of his ex-wife and the ability to relive them contributed to the character being more human than the AI.
The more I expected him to realize his reality, the more I felt disappointed. However, the character’s ex-wife understood how weird it was and maybe she was the only one sensible about it.
One more thing that made sense about this movie was the realistic ratings it received on various websites. This adds even more to the shame faced by the current rating system of movies, in general.
Anyway, the portrayal of the AI's depth in the movie appeared quite unrealistic, at least right now it seems to be. True consciousness requires independent thought, creativity, and the ability to be lost in reveries as if it were being relived. Alas, Data models can only take you so far unlike human imagination.
I would like to acknowledge a few writers whose posts I serendipitously came across, which helped me gain a deeper understanding of the movie—
When the AI in the movie composed its own music, I was immediately reminded of the video interview posted by Rick Beato on his YouTube channel with American jazz critic and music historian,
on how AI was a threat to Music Industry and artists in general. Check out the video if you’re interested —I got to understand the reasoning behind the character’s emotions and decisions as it took me back to “Unfucking My Future” written by
.Ultimately, the entire illusion created and depicted by the AI in the film amusingly reminded me of the article "Can Everyone Kindly Shut the Fuck Up About AI" written by
.
Maybe I’ll have a different perspective if I ever decide to revisit this movie at some point in the future, but who knows? AI still has a long way to go, so let’s sip on some coffee and actually get back to interacting with creative human beings!
ChatGPT voice chat in the app is free for now. You click the headphone ti the right of the microphone on the rifht hand side of the text entry box. Pick the voice you like the first time you voice chat. Then chat away. When you stop the entire chat and responses are in the chat history. It's pretty good?