New film Her may sound like a classic love story, especially if I were to tell you it is about a man named Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) falling in love with Samantha (Scarlett Johannsson).
However, in a modern twist, Samantha is an operating system. Much like Siri, Samantha is a voice on an advanced operating system. But unlike Siri, Samantha takes on a mind of her own as an intuitive entity that is insightful, sensitive and funny.
Spike Jonze, famed for directing cult film Being John Malkovich, is at the helm of this quirky romance-meets-science fiction flick. Theodore has been through a tough divorce and is not the most sociable of people, so finds solace in conversing with Samantha when he uploads the new OS onto his computer. But then he falls in love with ‘her,’ and things get complicated.
As voice recognition and AI software become more intelligent, this is an interesting area to explore in film. As film critic Bryan Bishop put it: "It’s like Siri has a soul."
In the trailer for the film, Samantha asks Theodore: "How long before you’re ready to date? I saw in your emails that you’ve gone through a break up."
Theodore retorts: "Well, you’re kind of nosy!"
The film is supposedly set in the near future, so perhaps it won’t be long before we have our computers snooping through our emails to questions us on our personal lives.
