Blog-ette #3: Thoughts on 'Her'

Warning: Might contain spoiler-ish notes, devoid of which, the point this article wants to make cant be driven home.

One of the most thought provoking movie scenes I've seen in recent times has absolutely no visual (yes, a blacked out screen), accompanied by the sound of a man and woman having sex, moaning in intimate passion as they climax. The man in question is a middle aged writer, Theodore Twombly  (Joaquin Pheonix), and the woman, his advanced artificially intelligent operating system with a female voice and personality, Samantha (voiced seductively all over by Scarlett Johansson). The scene runs for about 15 seconds and would probably be one of those surreal moments one'd come upon in a theatre in absolute darkness, as Spike Jonze's "Her" pushes the viewer into a momentary limbo characterized by contemplation about the fascinating pretext of the movie alongside basking in the mounting passion between the protagonist and his OS. Even the way the scene is set up in the screenplay shows how much thought has gone into writing this script. Only, earlier, Theodore participates in a futile phone sex attempt which leaves him disgusted; whilst this unexpected passion gives Samantha a chance to feel her human self amid an increasing consciousness of feelings and emotions.

A deeply though-out script (which won the 2014 Golden Globe for Best Screenplay), executed with great fervor by Spike and aided in the process by a skillful ensemble of actors, a mellow soundtrack and gorgeous cinematography that brings a futuristic Los Angeles to life and makes you wish it really turned out that beautiful; "Her" would be that film, which,  if you're watching with a loved one, would make you clasp hands by the time its done with you. The movie has three distinct yet overlapping paradigms carefully layered over each other. On one level, it talks of the innate nature and complications involved in the process of being human, on a second level, it subconsciously becomes a social critique on the increasingly isolated human social fabric, where humans would have stronger relations with their personal computers than the people around them and on a third level, it vaguely leaves with us a thought about the infinite extents to which human thought and philosophy can proceed provided our physical and mental limitations on the worldly realm don't exist.

The first level is what happens predominantly through the flick, as each character goes through an individual phase of joy, personal loss, redemption, self-admittance and other emotions and feelings, that characterize the essential human existence. Here's where the cast shines through. Amy Adams does a magical transformation from her raunchy yet vulnerable dame-self in 'American Hustle' into a cheerful and kid-like yet vulnerable two plaited tom-boyish game designer, Amy, who happens to be Theodore's only close friend. Olivia Wilde, in her limited screen time, comes through as a distraught yet sympathetically beautiful woman hopelessly looking for commitment from a blind date, who Theodore just hopes to have sex with for the night. The third woman we come across is Rooney Mara's turn in as Catherine, Theodore's soon-to-be ex-wife. Rooney is one of those few actresses currently working in tinsel town who have a slight physical frailty that adds up to a fragile depth and beauty to their characters. She turned this into a striking tenacity for her version of the famed Lisbeth Salander and here, she uses it to portray a woman whose voice and emotions have not been attended to in the past. And then we have one of the masters of underplay, Joaquin Phoenix, who turns in an act as touching as the letters Theodore writes for his clients. (He works as an author of letters in a company that you can pay to get a great letter written to your loved one, which I'm guessing, is another angle of the social critique I talked of).


The second layer, the social critique shows up subtly in places and frames, like the shots as Theodore rides the subway, where each person is shown to be talking to himself, or actually his personal computer through an ear-phone. It made me want to seriously look at what place social conversation, or in fact connection, is headed to in our increasingly self-involved lifestyles. The premise is quite similar to that note one can find on Facebook memes that shows a restaurant plaque shouting "We don't have wifi here, talk to each other at your tables". However, hope comes in the form of the OS talked of earlier and the intentions that would have designed something like that. Because even in a world with decreasingly relevant inter personal communication and fading relations, humans need and seek an interaction that's as close to human as it can get. We'd need the idle banter, the impromptu humor (of which, there is bundles sneaked into the script, making the film a breeze for non art-house audiences), the occasional sexual connect, heart break, introspection, understanding and perpetual love. That is where the third layer gracefully enters the scene, with Samantha slowly realizing what it is to be human, realizing and maintaining the essential nuances and finally using her ability to broach the infinite spaces lurking beyond the time-space continuum bounding actual humanity. Because, that's what we humans probably are, consistently in the search for those moments of joy, moments of self-realization, and the answers for our questions about life, its purport and our brief parts in it.