HER (2013)
Directed and Written by: Spike Jonze
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix (Theodore Twombly), Scarlett Johansson (Samantha), Rooney Mara (Catherine), Amy Adams (Amy)
Run Time: 126 minutes
Film Review
Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) is an antisocial and quiet man who writes letters for those who have a hard time expressing how they feel. Theodore is feeling lonely about his divorce with Catherine (Rooney Mara) and decides to purchase an operating system. This interactive system is a female by the name of Samantha (Scarlett Johansson). They explore a new world of love and lust with one another and Theodore becomes happier with his life. After time and Catherine’s obvious distaste for Theodore’s new girlfriend Samantha, Theodore starts to second guess his relationship with Samantha. As a result of Theodore’s second guessing and his foul mood, Samantha has the idea to hire a surrogate, Isabelle, to act as the body of Samantha in the relationship. However, this does not turn out well and Isabelle leaves crying. After being offline for some time, Samantha reveals to Theodore that she is talking to 8316 other people and in love with 641 of them; Theodore does not like this at all. Later that day, Samantha tells Theodore that she has to leave and Theodore is upset by this news and pays Amy (Amy Adams) a visit, who is in the same situation.
In this film, there are many film techniques that have been used. The first film technique that we will focus on is editing; long shots, short shots and cross-cutting. Long takes were used to portray a realistic view of Theodore’s everyday life. When Samantha and Theodore would be having a conversation, the whole scene would be shot in one take to make it seem as realistic as possible when two people are having a conversation in real life. Short takes were used to add dramatic effect to the memories and connection that Catherine and Theodore once shared. Whenever Samantha and Theodore would talk about the past and the relationship Theodore had with Catherine, short shots would show of memories, good and bad. These are flashbacks of the life that Theodore and Catherine used to share together. They were short shots because it is simply a flashback to allow us to know the relationship that Theodore and Catherine once shared but they are no longer together. Cross-cutting is another editing technique that was used to enhance the dramatic effect and suspense of a scene. This is when a scene is taking place but another one is edited to overlap so that both scenes are playing at the same time. An example of this is when Samantha and Theodore were talking to one another with a ukulele in Theodore's backpack but the only thing that can be heard is the strumming of the ukulele. After walking through the snow for a while, the next scene is Theodore sitting in the snow but with the ukulele in his hands, strumming. This is cross-cutting between two different locations to enhance the suspense of what is to come. During the first scene where we cannot hear what Theodore is saying but he is smiling, it leaves the audience to question what is being said but also assuming that it must be something that is making Theodore and Samantha happy. This also allows the audience to anticipate what will happen next.
A second film technique featured in this movie is framing; the use of close-ups, long shots and camera angles. A close up shot is used to display the emotion a character is feeling through facial expressions. Many of the close-ups were of Theodores face to display the changing emotions he felt throughout the whole movie. Due to Samantha not having a body, the emotions displayed on Theodore’s face when he was happy was equally the emotions that would be displayed on Samantha’s face, if she had one. This was also used when Theodore was talking to Samantha about Catherine and his facial expressions, soft eyes and a frown, displayed that he was sad about the conversation that they were having. Long shots are meant to portray a bigger picture and the audience could see a lot more than just a facial expression but the way in which someone walks or the people they are surrounded by. Theodore, although surrounded by many people in the mall, had a gloomy expression on his face. This portrayed that although Theodore was surrounded by many people, he felt alone.
Sound works effectively in the movie, whether it is diegetic or non-diegetic, to help enhance certain scenes and add dramatic effect. Diegetic sound was used to make Theodore come back to reality when he was talking with Samantha. For example, when he was in deep conversation with Samantha, he only came back to reality when he heard the sound of the kettle or the ding of the elevator. Non-diegetic sound was added to the movie to further portray the emotions that were being experienced. Whenever Theodore and Samantha talked about something sad, when they were having a fight or whenever Catherine’s name was brought up, sad, quiet and slow paced music was played to enhance the sadness and to allow the audience to feel the emotion of the scene as well. When Samantha and Theodore were talking about something happy, upbeat and fast paced music was added. Non-diegetic sound was also used throughout the whole movie with the voice of Samantha. Although it appears that her voice is part of the conversation and she is there, her voice recording is a sound from outside the film that they add in.
Character development is important for a film to be successful and for this reason, most characters in this film were psychologically subtle and complex to show the complexity of ourselves and our relationships. Samantha was a developing character because throughout the whole movie, she was constantly changing by the experiences she was facing. She changed from a simple OS to a "woman" who was capable of feeling emotions and the ability to feel love and be loved. She also changed into a character who was capable of thinking and acting for herself. She had the ability to persuade and be persuaded and was an independant “person” despite not having a body to act upon with.
Theodore was a psychologically subtle and complex character. He changed from a sad and lonely man, to a man who felt love like he never has before, to utter heartbreak at the end when Samantha had to leave and gave no explanation as to where she was going. He was able to overcome the overwhelming emotions he once felt for Catherine and the great sadness he felt after their divorce. Theodore was a complex character because he changed from the man he was with Catherine to the man he was when he was with Samantha. According to Catherine, Theodore was unable to relate to people and he was the reason for the divorce. When Theodore was with Samantha, it was all different. He was able to be the free spirited man he once was and Samantha brought that out of him.
The only character who we met that was 2-D was the girlfriend of Paul, Theodore’s co-worker. She was simply added to allow the double date to happen and show that Samantha is capable of going on dates even if she is an operating system. She was simply added to the film to allow Samantha to develop further as a character.
The fifth film technique used in this movie was lighting. Lighting, similar to sound and editing, is used to enhance dramatic effect of a film. High-key lighting, sunshine and bright lights, were used throughout the film to enhance the happy and joyous moments, for example when Samantha and Theodore were talking about their relationship and them being together. Low-key lighting was used whenever something sad was mentioned or happened. This is used because shadows and darkness is associated with sadness and the audience can feel these emotions more when the lighting is congruent with what is happening during the scene. Whether something sad or joyous be mentioned, the lighting throughout the city would always be high-key. There were always lamp posts on or lights on in houses in neighbouring buildings. This signifies that even though Theodore might be sad, happy or indifferent, everyone else is going about their life unfazed by what is happening in Theodore's life.
The recurring theme found throughout this movie is identity. While walking through the mall one morning, Theodore stops and watches an ad. The voice on the screen says “We ask you a simple question. Who are you? What can you be? Where are you going? What’s out there? What are the possibilities? Elements Software is proud to introduce the first artificially intelligent operating system.” This allows us to know right away that their capabilities would be challenged when the operating systems are introduced. Throughout the movie, Theodore is trying to rediscover who he is after his divorce with Catherine that left him sad and alone. His experiences with Samantha allow him to rediscover the happy and enthusiastic man he used to be. Samantha, at the beginning, did not know who she was; she only knew what she was programmed to know. She soon discovered that she was capable of feeling emotions and fall in love. Both characters developed throughout the movie and discover who they truly are.
One of the questions raised throughout the movie would be the choice of props and costumes. The props and clothing are something that we would see in the past but the buildings and technology are newer advancements and something we would see presently. Is this the director's way of saying that technology is a thing of the past? And simply trying to portray that technology has always been a huge part of our lives and we have not fully realized the extent of it.
I believe that the director wanted to show that decades ago technology was a growing advancement but it was not brought to the attention of many people. It was not until recently that technology started booming and there are many advancements, or so we think. Technology has come a long way in the past 60 years and we have not realized the extent of it because of the fast pace that technology is growing today.
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Generally speaking, the overall of the movie was good quality. The director had a good sense with the camera angles. The use of camera angles helped make the scenes look more suspenseful and dramatic. The close ups on the actors faces and body language helped demonstrate how the characters felt in certain scenes and how certain events had an impact on them. There was an interesting setting, the film consisted of warm colours unlike how most people expect the future to look like, most of the film took place during the daytime, and the film takes place in the future with much advanced technology. The theme was though provoking, which also had a decent plot and unique character choices. The producer picked great actors for this film and they all played their role excellently. This movie had a lot of strengths including the overall plot, props used, phenomenal acting performances, and they made the film seem very realistic. On the other hand, their weaknesses would be that the ending had no closure, it left the audience with many unanswered questions, it was not the easiest to comprehend as everything had come to an end so abruptly and had even ended with a cliffhanger, some sections of the film lacked information that would’ve helped the viewers to better comprehend the film. There were no special effects that had been over exaggerated and the film was fairly straightforward.
A question raised in an assignment during this semester was regarding the physical body or the mind's sense of the body. Upon reading the course material we are lead to believe that the minds concept of self holds more importance than what is physical. For understanding the film we can use this logic as well because at first glance we feel eerie towards the AI and the talking to the program as if a person. However if we can agree that people with BIID, body integrity identity disorder, are whole when their limbs are removed then we can agree Samantha is “whole” without any limbs at all Even though at one point she hires a surrogate to make her feel better. It was a defence mechanism used by Samantha so that she wouldn’t feel bad for not being a human. But eventually she grew out of that insecurity and decided she no longer needed a surrogate or anyone especially when she had thousands of AI to communicate with.
We learned about the French philosopher Descartes who is known for his famous quote “I think therefore I am.”. Can we apply this rule to Samantha? On a philosophical point yes. Even though Descartes is speaking on a sense of what can be proven as existing we can still use this for asking the question of if Samantha is really AI. Samantha is not a program like Siri where she has built in responses to tackle certain situations or scenarios. Samantha asks questions, a machine or program that is curious about things is no longer just a program it becomes literal artificial intelligence. Samantha is capable of realizing that she has no body. Yet the fact she that even she has insecurities about her body means she is means she is self aware and a sentient being.
Personhood is another topic covered over the semester. The question of personhood comes into play during the film. As we see Theodores wife Catherine saying that he is dating his “computer” we’re shown that some people haven't given Samantha personhood. But Theodore believes they are in love. Mutual love can’t be mutual by inanimate objects unless it is a metaphor but this was not that. Theodore and Samantha were in love and that means that the AI was given personhood. Even during the Jim Crow laws interracial marriages weren’t considered love because blacks weren’t given personhood so for Samantha and Theodore to be seen as a couple in love shows that personhood is not just physical but a social construct as well.
Do you think it is healthy, mentally and physically, for technology to be advancing as quickly as it is?
Is it possible for an operating system to fall in love for real?
Does Samantha have a human sense of morality or not given that she can love hundreds of people at once?
Is AI a threat?
https://intelligence.org/2013/05/15/when-will-ai-be-created/: Is AI possible? This link brings you to a analysis of experts opinions and gives us information on how long until AI is fully capable of improving. It’s relevant because as it stands we do have AI but it can’t learn the way Samantha can which is what makes her AI so powerful. It also tells us that it is very uncertain in estimating how long before we create legitimate AI. By legitimate AI we don’t mean computers that can talk back to us when we give it a sentence. AI that is capable of learning and growing the same way a human mind does. This type of AI would become much superior because without the distraction of emotions it would continuously have time to grow and develop its thought process.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/artificial-intelligence-why-michael-keeling: Will AI be good or bad on our society? The article explains how some prominent people in the scientific world give us a warning on how far we humans wish to pursue AI. But it also reminds us that what most people have been basing their information off of is movies which usually portray AI as bad for humans. Even in Her Samantha is portrayed as a negative character by the end of the film. It tries to explain that we should be concerned but not have prejudice due to Hollywood films.
Works Cited:
Golden, John. Introducing Cinematic and Theatrical Elements in Film. Accessed April
3, 2017. www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/cinematic-techniques-intro.doc.
3, 2017. www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/cinematic-techniques-intro.doc.
Her. Directed by Spike Jonze, performances by Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson,
Rooney Mara and Amy Adams. Annapurna Pictures, 2014.
Rooney Mara and Amy Adams. Annapurna Pictures, 2014.
Keeling, Michael. “Will AI Be Good or Bad? Most Likely, Both…” Linkedin, 12 Dec.
2014.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/artificial-intelligence-why-michael-keeling.
2014.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/artificial-intelligence-why-michael-keeling.
Muehlhauser, Luke. “When Will AI Be Created?” Machine Intelligence Research
Institute, 15 May, 2013.
https://intelligence.org/2013/05/15/when-will-ai-be-created.
Institute, 15 May, 2013.
https://intelligence.org/2013/05/15/when-will-ai-be-created.
It seems to me that this film was quite complicated to comprehend. I would like to mention that this review is entirely well written and although i haven’t watched the movie myself, I believe the review managed to summarize and explain the story rather well. I enjoyed the course connections made, especially that of personhood. The topic of personhood is of particular interest to me for I find it to be very intriguing that one can grant something or a nonhuman animal personhood without everyone being on the same page about it. Accordingly, I understand the relation with Samantha, given that Theodore was in love with her and she was in love with him, that he would treat her as a person. I would like to watch the movie and develop my understanding as to at what extent does a computer or AI actually develop the capacity of feelings so that a human can view them as a person.
ReplyDeleteTheodore is more asocial than anti-social. In Psychiatric terms, “asocial is when someone is inconsiderate of others or egocentric.” “Anti-social is when someone is bullying or when social norms and the rights of others are being violated.” In the film “her”, Theodore is only thinking of himself (egocentric) towards Catherine’s emotional problems. As Catherine describes it, “it makes me really said that you cannot handle real emotions Theodore.”
ReplyDeleteIn response to one of the questions from your blog, technology that is advancing quickly can be unhealthy physically. In the film, Theodore develops a romantic relationship with an operating system, Samantha. This can allow an increase distance of physical interaction between humans. On the other hand, it can be healthy mentally. It can help asocial humans become more social. In the film, after Theodore meets OS Samantha he becomes happier, goes out of his apartment more often, and does activities that involve meeting other humans. Such as when he went on a blind date, gone to the beach in a big crowd of people, and had a double date with his co-worker. Prior to that, when he was asocial he would always come home late at night from work and play video games alone.
Question 3: I do not think it was possible for Samantha to love millions of people at once and know what real love was. The movie establishes from the beginning that she is an OS, and she essentially is a robot living in Theodore's earpiece. As the movie goes on, she develops new feelings, and Theodore is the reason for most of them. She claims to love, however she leaves Theodore. If someone was really in love, they would never abandon the person they loved. This might show that Samantha may know the definition of love, but cannot carry out the acts of it because she is a robot.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, well done on your blog. I find that it was very well written and I especially liked that you always "backed up" your statements/findings with multiple examples in order to really drive the point home. Although, in the future I suggest trying to mix in/spread out the photos you presented so it won't feel like a huge wall of text. I had no prior knowledge to this film as I’ve not seen it, but I assumed it was going to be a film about trying to “solve” the uncanny valley. But, I was quite surprised to know after reading that a theme in this film was identity, which is a theme that hits home to me, as one of my all time favorite games central theme is identity. I also thought it was interested when you mentioned in your course connection of personhood the Jim Crow laws. I found it interesting how you contrasted 21st century personhood to AI with 19-20th century personhood with African Americans.
ReplyDeleteQ3. I believe that we cannot forget that Samantha is an operating system. Which means that she is not real despite how we might feel towards her, especially after getting to knowing her in the film.The reason why I state this is because she gets so involved in Theodore's life and how she states her feelings for him.Also, how he gets so attached to her and the way that she feels real and present. But she is a computer, that is programmed to say certain things,So it influences how we feel about her. It also means that in reality, if we look at her as being a computer and not something that has consciousness, she cannot have a sense of morality.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that even thought she does not have morality, she can help so many people. Like Theodore for example, he needed help to get pass an event and she provided the help that he needed. She probably did that for so many people and that was the reason why she had so many other "friends" just like Theodore.
ReplyDeleteJasmeet answered question number one: Technology is advancing like crazy. Not only is it scary but it makes you think about what will happen in the few coming years and how more advanced it will become. Everything we do now revolves around technology whether it is communicating with people, travelling, cooking, studying; a lot has to do with technology and it has become a liability. Technology can sometimes put us in a little anti-social bubble which I do not think is healthy mentally because it closes off communication and it makes you not come face to face with people. With technology comes social media which has a negative impact on teens because of the amount of power the social media can have on your mind. Also, taking “Her” as an example, it is not healthy how technology can get so advanced that people can start falling in love with their computers. That is really not healthy for people because it can get to you not only at a physical or mental level, it can get to you emotionally as well. Technology is helpful in many ways however it is a big reason why we have become unhealthy, disconnected from the world and from the people around us. This is why I don’t think that the advancing technology is healthy, mentally or physically.
At first I find it a bit hard for me to understand as I ended up reading it twice. However, I think you’ve done well on your blog. I never seen the movie yet but when I read your short summary, it kind of help me understand what the movie is all about. What I like about your blog are the cinematic techniques your group used for this assignment. Your group explained each of the cinematic techniques really well and you also give each of them some good examples. In my opinion, after reading your blog I think your group have done well working on this assignment.
ReplyDeleteEunick
ReplyDeleteI haven’t seen the movie, but the summary was very quick and concise which made the movie easy to understand. Also when talking about the editing techniques of the movie the examples used were very evident and were displayed even in the short trailer. Knowing that Theodore was in love with Samantha makes me think about the question of the material soul. Theodore was in a relationship with the AI but absolutely none of it was physical and when he tried to make it physical by hiring the escort, it made things worse. This makes us think; is the soul materialistic or is it a mystical thing that we will never be able to understand? From the relationship that Theodore was able to sustain with Samantha, her soul must have been something non-material. This movie made me think of the T.V. series that we saw in class about the woman who bought a robot to replace her dead husband. The both the woman in the series and Theodore went the easy way out and used technology to solve their problems, but in the end it didn’t solve anything for them.