Her Film Reaction
One of the technological ideas
presented in Her that stuck out to me throughout the movie was the relationship
between communication and intimacy. The characters in the movie were constantly
accessible to technology, even when sleeping, yet they struggled to build
personal relationships with each other. For me personally, technology has
improved my relationships with my friends because we can keep in touch all the
time without having to line up our schedules but it seemed like technology in
the movie had the opposite effect.
Throughout the entire film there
was no mention of Theodore ever communicating with a sibling or a parent even
though he is going through a trying time with his divorce. There was also no
indication that his parents had died so I was surprised that he did not
communicate with them at all.
I think technology, especially
texting, has made communication between parents and children way more frequent, and I expected that trend to continue into the future portrayed in the
film but it did not. I can’t post a single thing on Facebook without relatives
coming out of the woodwork and commenting on my “Senior Year!” album instead of
the actual picture,
so I was really surprised that there were no similar
examples in Her. Throughout the entire movie I can’t pinpoint any mentions of
family, which was unexpected since Theodore went on a first date and I feel
like that’s something people normally ask about.
It is shown in the movie how communicating in person is becoming
more difficult because of technology and partners expect less of each other because of
the amount of technology available, which has actually increased divorce rates.
Theodore writes really intimate and heartfelt letters for other people
digitally but is unable to work out problems in his marriage. This was also
shown in the Amy Adams character that ended up getting divorced over a small
fight.
The depiction of Theodore’s divorce because him and his
ex-wife were unable to communicate their emotions to each other reinforced the idea that increased technology does not mean increased meaningful communication. I did not
understand how Theodore and Samantha had such an intimate relationship
exclusively through technology when prior to that Theodore was unable to
maintain a relationship with his wife who he lived with.
I found the idea of communication
in such an interconnected digital world interesting because Theodore was unable
to master in-person communication but utilized digital communication almost
constantly.
