A Very Sweet Electric Dream

Rating: 9/10 (11 January 2014)

My 15 year old nephew's computer's hard drive crashed just before Christmas leaving him socially stranded and almost bereft. He wanted a new one and wanted it then and joked about selling a kidney, at least I think, and hope he was joking.
That episode showed me just how dependent people and mainly young people, have become with their computers and how connectivity has become a huge part of their lives. This is now; we know all this tech will be refined, and encroach further into our lives.
So this film starts in a near future with a guy played by Joaquin Phoenix who has just suffered a relationship break-up. He buys a new computer operating system. The system is an AI which tailors his needs and personality and forms a relationship based on his needs. The AI's voice is performed by the sweet sounding Scarlet Johansson whom I could listen to all day with its nuances and delicious laugh. They form a relationship which morphs into a loving one which seems right and in no-way creepy. Then that relationship journeys towards a conclusion which leaves you guessing at what that will be and in a way hoping for a happy one.
The film is beautifully shot, and the atmosphere is tangible you really enter this rather pleasant future. This film is SciFi at its best and has an originality to it coupled with film making and storytelling also at its best. I will watch this film again, it's a strange social commentary that's not a warning of how bad things can get, as we turn over more of our lives to our various devices. To me it seems a good world to come. Yes we have our very convenient devices but we are still human, and they're not worth a kidney, real human contact will always trump.
Anyway I turn this review in using my Windows 8.1 word envious and wishing the movies Scarlet Johansson's OS was here to assist me. The film for me was 9/10 I suspect it will creep into my top 10 favourite films as I re-watch it time and time again.