profound

Rating: 9/10 (17 January 2016)

The Turing Test asks humans to decide if an unseen interlocutor is a human or a computer. 'Her' posits a computer OS that is so plausible it not only passes the test, but gives love, and is loved back. The film also extends The Turing Test to ask, implicitly, what happens if AI exceeds human intelligence. At that point, what 'tests' of plausibility would AI set for us? This is a wonderfully observed, thoughtful piece, that functions as both a bittersweet love story, and a contemplation of our fragile, flawed humanity. Joaquin Phoenix is Theodore, struggling to cope with the collapse of his marriage, till OS Samantha (seductively voiced by Scarlett Johanssen) provides the crutch to see him through - though the cruelty (or is it clarity?) of human words burst his bubble. As more and more of us conduct our relationships online, or inhabit the same physical space with strangers while carrying on (sometimes intimate) interactions with distant, disembodied others, 'Her' suggests the dysfunctional, melancholic future we may inhabit. One to watch and discuss.