by Roger Bourke White Jr., copyright January 2014
Her is a fine example of Technofiction. It is a story about exploring how a new technology affects how we live. In this case the new technology is an ultra-smart operating system for the protagonist's computers. Done well, this is a kind of movie I love because it's telling us about something new.
And this one is done well.
This is a story about the near future. It is a rich world setting -- no apocalypse to deal with here. The center of the story is the relation that grows between a successful urban professional, Theodore Twombly, and his newly purchased, ultra smart computer operating system who goes by Samantha. This OS is so smart that it quickly starts responding like a human to his many requests. The story becomes one of how Theodore's relations with various people around him evolve, how his relation with Samantha evolves, and how Samantha the OS evolves.
It's a relations story with the added twist of cyber relations. In Facebook terms, "It's complicated."
Because this is a new style of story (as in, unconventional) the characters are unconventional, and how it is filmed is unconventional. Filming unconventional is something director/writer Spike Jonez does well, and this movie is no exception. I like how he portrayed the various lifestyles.
That said, here are some Technofiction observations:
o One of the big challenges about writing near future stories where people and computers are seriously mixing together is what the people in them will be doing. Jonez handles this well by letting Twombly be a successful writer. Writing is about emotions and those are something humans will continue to handle well. The high tech twist in this case is he is doing an elaborate ghost writing job. All-in-all, it works well for me.
o What doesn't work quite as well is not using a Google Glass equivalent. Instead we have an earplug and a smart phone camera combo. But, I agree with the choice because this combo lets the story get communicated. The challenge of figuring out how to listen in on Google glasses in a movie or book setting is one I still haven't figured out how to solve. This is a good alternative.
o Related to the above, Jonez dodged multi-tasking. I don't mind that he did, but as a result that part of our future is not addressed.
o What he did handle well was people trying to relate to each other. I liked his style in this. He shows us a lot of new ways of relating.
o None of his people had serious hobbies. The closest we come to this is Twombly and his computer game. This is hard to portray and not be distracting, so I cut him slack on this. But in the real world near future hobby pursuing will fill much of most successful people's days.
o How Samantha evolved was not clear. I could not detect her learning things. She didn't seem to make mistakes and learn from them.
o A small related point: Samantha, the OS, becomes so much more than just an OS. If I was selling Samanthas, I'd sure be changing the marketing when I discovered all this evolution was happening.
"Her" was entertaining. It's the kind of science fiction movie I like: one that explores how a new technology will affect how we live.
Because this is a new kind of story, how Jonez filmed it and how the characters related to each other in it was also new. I enjoyed that as well. All-in-all, well done!
And some self-promotion: If you liked this story, check out my short story The Failure, about how cyber life will first appear, and my book, Child Champs, about how we will be living in our rich world future.
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