Love story with a gimmick

Rating: 4/10 (24 March 2014)

What if computer systems would become so smart that we can talk to them, rely on them, get attached to them and even love them? That is what this film is about. I expected an original and thought-provoking story with original angles - something that stimulates the mind. Instead, I saw a conventional, rather melodramatic love story with an extra gimmick: one of the lovers doesn't have a body.
This is not a film about artificial intelligence, but about feelings. Theodore, the computer-owner, and Samantha, the operating system with a mind of her own, keep on talking about their feelings. How they are getting emotionally involved with each other. How she regrets not having a body. How he regrets not being able to touch her. How they have cyber sex (in spite of her not having a body). How he becomes distant when he realizes it's rather embarrassing to have a relationship with an operating system. How she becomes distant when she meets another operating system. How she 'betrays' him. And so on.
This could have been a film about how we deal with artificial intelligence, with its opportunities, and its dangers. Instead, it's about how we deal with emotions. Samantha becomes so 'human', the only thing that reminds us about her being a software system is that we never see her. Only in the very beginning she says things like 'It took me 0,02 seconds to decide about my own name'. Later on, she talks just like a human being, so the aspect of her being a piece of artificial intelligence gets lost.
It would be nice to know how artificially intelligent operating systems would change our society. Would they help criminals to commit the perfect crime? Would they change our educational system? Could they be helpful in eradicating poverty? Would they help novelists to write better novels? Would we need novelists at all? Would we need musicians? Architects?
None of this in 'Her'. The only useful thing Samantha seems to do, apart from complaining about not having a body and telling Theodore she loves him, is find errors in Theodore's text, which is not very intelligent at all. Spell checkers are able to do that since God knows when.
'Her' could have been an intelligent film about how computers change the way we think and behave. But it turns out to be a rather conventional love story instead. I was disappointed. And I didn't have a Samantha to cheer me up.