Her - a Love Story Film Directed by Spike Jonze - Movie Review Example

Introduction ‘Her,' is a love story film directed by Spike Jonze. The melancholy of the film is rooted in the way personal and technological advancement is capable of pulling people together or pushes them away. Spike has used technology, and technological advancement to try and show how we live and relate with one another and the urge to connect. The wonder technological magic employed, create a space in which some of the basic questions of life appear in a fresh perspective and common feeling of love and loss gain extraordinary resonance. This paper discuses some of the areas where technology has played a key role in the film. The areas are include; the film first scene which bringing out the selfhood; in diagnosis of the various problem of life and also in explaining how acceptance can be used to reduce the problem of life Self-hood variation Throughout this film, Spike tries to explore a territory previously explored by watts. Watt proposed a view of self-transactions. According to watts, the skin connects us to the outside world. The supposed boundary between self and others is a highly permeable zone of interrelation (Nashawaty, 2013).. It is impossible to locate ‘I’ because it exists not inside but between – in the activities by which self and the world are mutually constituted just like a figure and the ground in a drawing. Mr. Watts, summed up the shift in perspective by a phrase he used: the word ‘I’ is nothing more substantial than word ‘It’ in the phrase, ‘it is raining’ (VILKOMERSON, 2013). ‘Her’ is a love story that unfolds in a world that begun to take something like watts understanding of the self for granted – a culture gradually coming to term with a reality it has begun to embody. In the movie her, technology has played a great role in transforming the watts philosophy into a story that the viewers can relate with. The films, for example, begin films for intake begins with a scene that greatly break us loose from received notion of self. We see a man Theodore Twombly thinks out loud. His eye looks out toward the camera (or toward an invincible conversation partner) but he simultaneously seems to look inward, to scan some inner register for ideals. He uses a moderately formal style; his talk subject seems like a confession of a lover. He is compromising his thought as he goes along as other Real life actors do. What viewers see in this scene is a model of self-expression. He searches inwardly for the right words; the same way we searcher for the word clues from the person behind our eyes. It however becomes clear that the division of the word into the outer and inner portions is inadequate of fact. Important detail is revealed from the Theodore monologue, - a girl I was 50 years- the viewer now know that the self expressed by Theodore is not his. Finally, the camera pulls away from his face. Moreover, a new context snaps in the place. Theodore is sitting is sitting in the beautifulhandwrittenleters.com company’s office where he work as a ghost writer, as a professional empathy. His heartfelt monologue is being composed for a client; he speaks directly not to another person but a computer with futuristic accurate voice recognition that take down his dictation into a girlish cursive. He has never met his intended audience. The only thing he knows about his audience is from an email, few photograph and information on the questionnaire. So what do viewers think of this? Apparently, it is common for people to outsource their intimate relationship. Parents request letters to be written to their children, wives and husband exchange customized love note. It is not done on the sly; the film gives the impression that everyone involved is aware of the pretense. Presumably, a client finds something guanine in sentiment composed for them bearing in mind that the letter are ghost written. In the real world, sentiment written from photos taken years ago cannot be true. The conventional lines between others and self, human and machine, pretense and sincerity present and future are all blurred. The effect is disorienting, but only mild and humorous. One would expect a many of the viewers to reject this, but surprisingly it goes well with the majority of the viewers. Perhaps the use of near future setting helps to accommodate some of this exaggeration and reduce disbelief among the viewers. Through the use of ‘technological magic’ Spike manage to create a dislocation to the viewers. This is however where spike wants the audiences to be since it gives the urge to go along. In the search of the real thing. After reviewing the concept of self, from the mooring in the inner life, Spike to his major concern in the film- the nature of the modern relationship. According to Jonze, the desire for connection and intimacy is Constance in human life. The hard question is how that is going on nowadays. Where are the real things, in a world where the boundaries of self have become fluid? It was once believed that media intergration would make it easy for connection between people. This is however not the case. Loneliness among the human being is constant; it simply finds a new form in every era. What Spike set to explore is an ambiguous situation. Spike is of the opinion that the technology connect and/or disconnects us. In the next series of scene, we see how spike bring this contradiction in various aspect in our relationship How technology makes life complicated. We see Theodore in a preoccupied conversation with a flat voiced interface of his phone, just like everyone around him. We see a train car where all the passages are interacting with various piece of technology. These people are all isolated; each is living on a separate continent of his own. We then see Theodore at home alone playing a video game. He reaches out for a hilarious unsatisfying phone sex when he is unable to sleep. We see him with his friend Charles and army and in a flash back with his estranged wife. All of these relationships are strain. This is because, from what we see each person is preoccupied with a project that don't quite match with those of people surrounding them. They all want a relationship to satisfy the, but they continue to peruse their personal fulfillment, undermining their relationship According to spike, the fundamental tension between the will to connect and self-directedness is one of the things that complicate modern life ( Bell, 2014). In numerous instances, the characters in the film are complaining that people do not get them because they are too focused in their things. Although this is true, it also shows how the complainer is self-absorbed. For example, Theodore complains about his mother ‘whenever we talk about something that is going on my life her reaction is usually about hers' subsequently, Samantha complain about Theodore turn this back to him. When he responds to her budding zest for life with private fear, she responds impatiently, I was talking about what I wanted. The level of self-regard in this comment pottery high level of self-absorption Technology can connect people. The bright spot in Theodore life turn to be another piece of technology. This helps to shows that what divide can also connect. He is introduced to it through an advertisement that pitches the product by means of question like: who are you? What can you be? Where are you going? What will you find there? What are the possibilities? The meaning of this advert is that the product can provide answers to this classic meaning of life questions for you. However, the role of this advert in the plot is to raise the question. The advert is an artificially intelligent operating system, with highly improved vocal interface that everyone here interacts with already. It is so high powered that it has become an independent consciousness. Just like human, it can learn, grow, thinks and aspire. Again, it is capable of playing, initiating humor, filtering, appreciating and having orgasm. The advert introduces itself as Samantha in Theodore phone. From this point the film central narrative unreels. Right from the start the film convinces the audience that Samantha is real. Samantha is portrayed as charmer. Theodore and Samantha develop a relationship. Their relationship is not only plausible but surfaced with a conventional romantic comedy- they laugh, play and have an orgasm. In fact, their relationship becomes the films touch stone for the genuine connection between people. In one of the scenes, when Theodore is reminiscing about his marriage, Samantha enquires from him how it is possible for two individual to share lives. He replies that the key is growing together, sharing thoughts and writing together. This is what they do: they grew up together. Samantha became herself through interaction of Theodore and Theodore recovered the joy of living through her. It is as original as promised, a life changing experience Impact to control cause disharmony in the relationship In its examination of a modern relationship, ‘hers’ depict that the principle cause of disharmony is the impulse to control (NELSON, 2013). . There are many cases of dissatisfaction in the film. But one important one is where spike has used technology in the development of Samantha character. One of the most human things about Samantha is her restless questioning of her humanity. On one hand, she is equipped with confidence in her integrity. For instance, when Theodore comments soon after meeting her, ‘you seem like a person, but you are just a voice in the computer’. She claims that she understands that limited perspective of an un-artificial mind would perceive that way. Later in the scene Theodore repeat cement again, ‘I cannot believe that he is having a conversation with a computer’, this time, her response slightly hurts but game ‘ you are not, you are having a conversation with me’. On the other hand, Samantha knows and feels that her humanity is questionable; her disembodied way of being is outlier. Thus, the first thing she yearns is a body. She fantasies what would be to have one, imagining its weight and its irritation. She imagined being touched sexually and conjures up what seemed like a real sexual response. She feels that the body will make her complete. She even feels generous that Catherine has one (NELSON, 2013). This led to her disastrous plan to set Theodore up, with sexual surrogate. She wanted to make herself more real to him and hence more real to herself. This is a good example willful attempt to make things right with predictable consequences. The result of this is that it strained the relationship to braking point. Again, Samantha doubts the reality or authenticity of her feeling. As she experiences the feeling more, she wonders whether they are real or just programming. One crucial thing to note is that it is hard to know whether feelings are real or not. Finally, the relationship troubles in the world of ‘her’ also occur when people hind or withhold themselves. Hiding is a form the urge to control. Theodore is seen as liable to hiding. For instance, he accepts that that one of the problem of his marriage was his reticence. ‘I would be upset about something and not be able to say it. Similarly, when Samantha hurts him during the sexual surrogate episode, he with holds his feeling from her, insisting that everything was alright. Samantha sensed the problem but the mixed reaction from Theodore made her to doubt her perception. ‘I had started to think that I am mad, you were saying that everything was alright, but all I could get from you was distance and anger.' Like all other strategies hiding wraps up our natural relation of life ( SMITH, S. 2013). Acceptance The film ‘Her’ diagnostic of the problem of life lead logically to the idea of a cure. In simple terms if the problem of life come from withdrawal and control from thing, then, the right way to live would be accepting an being open to change. The film has devoted few scenes to illustrate how a life lived according to the principle of acceptance and openness to change would be like. In the film, her again uses the character Samantha to show the acceptance. The self-knowledge and the beginning of acceptance come when she realizes that her doubts and her scrapple with herself have landed her in paradox. Doubting her won feeling resulted to the overwhelming rush of feeling. Doubting herself lead to self-accusation. In other words, those things she questions are affirmed in questioning though they return in unwelcoming form (Bell, 2014).. Paul, Tatiana, and Jocelyn are all standout sharply in the field. Without hesitating, they accepted Samantha as a person; they were also not surprised by the idea of Theodore dating Samantha. They represent a sharp contrast of Theodore, who in three occasions doubted the humanity of Samantha. The acceptance in the case those three characters is willingness to play along with things as they present them self without demanding proof. Conclusion One of the strengths of ‘hers’ is clarity and emotional warmth with which it attempts to illustrate ‘the way we live now’. Spike primary interest in the film was to represent the world in which many of find our self and explore the possibility and predicament it present the movie put the world in stylized frame and introduces element of wonder technological magic. This create a space in which some of the basic question of life appear in a fresh perspective and common feeling of love and loss gain extraordinary resonance Nashawaty, C. (2013). Her. Entertainment Weekly, (1290), 48. SMITH, S. (2013). Her. Entertainment Weekly, (1272/1273), 66. NELSON, M. (2013). Her MODERN LOVE. Film Comment, 10. Bell, J. (2014). COMPUTER LOVE. Sight & Sound, 24(1), 20-25. VILKOMERSON, S. (2013). SPIKE JONZE, UP CLOSE AND "PERSONAL". Entertainment Weekly, (1289), 16. Read More

So what do viewers think of this? Apparently, it is common for people to outsource their intimate relationship. Parents request letters to be written to their children, wives and husband exchange customized love note. It is not done on the sly; the film gives the impression that everyone involved is aware of the pretense. Presumably, a client finds something guanine in sentiment composed for them bearing in mind that the letter are ghost written. In the real world, sentiment written from photos taken years ago cannot be true.

The conventional lines between others and self, human and machine, pretense and sincerity present and future are all blurred. The effect is disorienting, but only mild and humorous. One would expect a many of the viewers to reject this, but surprisingly it goes well with the majority of the viewers. Perhaps the use of near future setting helps to accommodate some of this exaggeration and reduce disbelief among the viewers. Through the use of ‘technological magic’ Spike manage to create a dislocation to the viewers.

This is however where spike wants the audiences to be since it gives the urge to go along. In the search of the real thing. After reviewing the concept of self, from the mooring in the inner life, Spike to his major concern in the film- the nature of the modern relationship. According to Jonze, the desire for connection and intimacy is Constance in human life. The hard question is how that is going on nowadays. Where are the real things, in a world where the boundaries of self have become fluid?

It was once believed that media intergration would make it easy for connection between people. This is however not the case. Loneliness among the human being is constant; it simply finds a new form in every era. What Spike set to explore is an ambiguous situation. Spike is of the opinion that the technology connect and/or disconnects us. In the next series of scene, we see how spike bring this contradiction in various aspect in our relationship How technology makes life complicated. We see Theodore in a preoccupied conversation with a flat voiced interface of his phone, just like everyone around him.

We see a train car where all the passages are interacting with various piece of technology. These people are all isolated; each is living on a separate continent of his own. We then see Theodore at home alone playing a video game. He reaches out for a hilarious unsatisfying phone sex when he is unable to sleep. We see him with his friend Charles and army and in a flash back with his estranged wife. All of these relationships are strain. This is because, from what we see each person is preoccupied with a project that don't quite match with those of people surrounding them.

They all want a relationship to satisfy the, but they continue to peruse their personal fulfillment, undermining their relationship According to spike, the fundamental tension between the will to connect and self-directedness is one of the things that complicate modern life ( Bell, 2014). In numerous instances, the characters in the film are complaining that people do not get them because they are too focused in their things. Although this is true, it also shows how the complainer is self-absorbed.

For example, Theodore complains about his mother ‘whenever we talk about something that is going on my life her reaction is usually about hers' subsequently, Samantha complain about Theodore turn this back to him. When he responds to her budding zest for life with private fear, she responds impatiently, I was talking about what I wanted. The level of self-regard in this comment pottery high level of self-absorption Technology can connect people. The bright spot in Theodore life turn to be another piece of technology.

This helps to shows that what divide can also connect. He is introduced to it through an advertisement that pitches the product by means of question like: who are you? What can you be? Where are you going? What will you find there?

Read More