What is Love?

Rating: 3/10 (11 January 2014)

Greetings again from the darkness. Well critics have been raving about this film so strongly and for so long that I almost feel guilty going against the grain. Almost. Where they see a masterpiece with insight into love and self, I see an implausible story bordering on ludicrous.
Writer/director Spike Jonze is an incredibly creative filmmaker. His Adaptation and Being John Malkovich are two movies I can watch repeatedly. I was a fan of his film version of Where The Wild Things Are, but this one just brought me nothing but annoyance, frustration and irritation.
Rather than defend my minority stance, I'll just admit to not being onboard with this one. I have always believed we should each judge a film by how it touches us ... how we connect with it. I was neither touched nor connected.
What I will say is the premise of technology replacing human interaction for some in the near future is not unthinkable and has already happened for some. But to say that a real relationship ... that true love ... can not just occur, but become commonplace between people and machines just simply contradicts what I believe comprises true love.
The film is extremely well made and visually beautiful. The acting is superb: Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Amy Adams are all terrific. Voice acting is spot on including Scarlett Johansson, Brian Cox, Kristen Wiig, and even Spike Jonze. But falling in love with an operating system? Maybe what Osgood Fielding III said at the end of Some Like it Hot is really true ... "Nobody's perfect".