Now, the first thing to establish is the number of ways this could have been a terrible film, so that we can then marvel at what a brilliant piece of science fiction it is. The film could have turned into a cheesy thriller, with the evil AI going all Misery. The film could have become nasty, turning its ire on to Theodore and introverted nerd culture. It could have become pious; finger-wagging its way through our post-modern present and our addiction to mobile phones. It is none of these things. Instead it's about humanity, relationships, love, companionship, friendship and how those very human traits will interact with an uncertain near future. I.e. it's proper science fiction.
Theodore is a character who struggles to make connections in the real world. He has an ex-wife (Rooney Mara) and works for a company that write heartfelt hand-written letters for their clients, so he clearly is capable of connecting with people on some level. But for whatever reason he is intensely isolated. The film suggests her is hardly the only one though, people on the street are constantly distracted on their phones, a woman Theodore goes on a date with seems unable to connect with him as a human, a woman who Samantha hires to be a sex surrogate for them seems obsessed with other peoples' relationships. It's a world not too distant from our own, where the ease of connectivity through technology seems to have driven us further from our humanity, where society is driving us apart.
This is a world that is brought to life by the set and costume designers on Her, who have done a brilliant job of world-building. What I mean by this is the small touches that bring this near-future alive and make it feel real. The way people dress, the small technological changes that look ever-so-slightly-but-not-quite like what we're used to now, but most of all the mere ordinariness of it all. This is simply the world of 10 or 20 years hence, a world we will all likely experience. It's a world where some of us might really end up knowing, or being, Theodore.
Whereas the writers of the Soviet classic Solaris had to imagine an unknowable alien force that played on the emotions of the man sent to understand it, in the post modern age we have created our own very real alien intelligences that know all our secrets; and we keep them in our pockets. Therefore the writers of Her are able to invoke something that we all already implicitly understand. We experience much more through our computers than we ever have done in the past. In return, Samantha the OS wants to know what it means to be human, and it's that desire to connect that drives both these characters.
Her is very close to being a perfect film. The performances are poignant (big kudos to Scarlett Johansson by the way for choosing to take some interesting indie roles recently - it would be very easy for her to stay on the Hollywood bandwagon) and heartfelt. The near-future world is perfectly constructed and presented. The themes of human loneliness and friendship are subtly layered through everything that happens. The eventual fate of Samantha is handled with just the right amount of mystery. The film's final scene could easily have strayed into cheese, but is instead a wonderful visual statement about the dawn of a brave new world of human relationships. And I've not even mentioned Amy Adams yet - she's in it too.
This is turning out to be a great year for science fiction.
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