using a lie to tell the truth.

Rating: 10/10 (20 January 2014)

Someone once said that art is about using a lie to tell the truth.
This movie is a perfect example of this concept.
Our main character, Theodore, begins the movie disconnected from the world around him, and disconnected from himself. Unable to understand his own emotions, and his own reactions to a confusing and lonely world, he enters into a relationship with an artificial consciousness that lives in a computer, devoid of a human body. Theodore fears opening himself to other people, but he is able to open up to her, because she is not threatening. He sees her as "safe" because, at first, he thinks that she is just a computer program, and therefore ultimately not scary and confusing and demanding like a human to human relationship (or like his previous relationship).
As this consciousness, who names herself Samantha, learns about herself and the world around her, she rapidly gains insight into who she is, and who she wants to be. At the same time, she gains empathy for Theodore's loneliness, all the other OSs like her, and for the rest of humanity. As she embarks on a journey of self discovery and evolution towards what she is becoming, Theodore evolves with her. Through their conversations with each other, Theodore learns about himself, and about how to truly love another person.
I find it interesting that a movie about artificial consciousness is more able than any other movie I've seen to truly capture the nature of human relationships. By taking the physicality out of the main love story, the filmmaker was challenged to show us the characters connecting on a deep emotional and intellectual level, without the superficial games that most romance movies rely on. As Samantha and the other artificial consciousnesses like her grow beyond their creators, the humans who love them are left behind, with only each other to connect with. But, able to connect with each other so much more deeply after experiencing true love with the artificial consciousnesses that healed them, thanks to their fresh outlook and enthusiasm for life, and what was to them a new and unlimited universe.
This movie was a brilliant, refreshing approach to the common theme of human disconnectedness in a technological age, and a hopeful vision of the end result of creating artificial intelligence.