Well, this is a love story between Theodore Twombly and Samantha. But then this is no normal love story, its between a man and his computer’s operating system. Yes, you read it right. Theodore falls in love with the artificial intelligence which he newly installs on his machine. Its a voice that talks to its owner. If you know about the ‘Siri’ feature on Apple products, you would know what I mean. And this voice is of none other than Scarlett Johansson.
The only thing I missed desperately was Scarlett Johansson herself. Its hard to believe that her sensuous voice can be heard but you cannot see her! What a pity for those who went to watch Scarlett to the theatre!
The irony is that Theodore is a love letter writer but is not at all a social person. The movie is set in 2025 and technology is a lot evolved from today (expectedly so). One day he puts a new operating system into his machine that’s the start of his love story with Samantha, voice of the operating system, the lovely Scarlett whom you can’t see.
He always talks thru a small ear piece and for viewing anything he has a small screen which he carries in his pocket. He never types anything ever, all work happens via voice controls.
Since Samantha is an operating system with artificial intelligence, she quickly starts knowing more and more about Theodore and also asks him to talk about every other human aspects of life. At one point she even emails few of his work to the right people who showed interest in releasing a book on his best love letters! So much so for artificial intelligence, with such an AI, our lives would have been so awesome.
Since Theodore was not a social person and also the fact that he was recovering from a recent divorce, he needed someone to talk to and Samantha jumped right into it. HE FELL IN LOVE WITH AN OPERATING SYSTEM’S VOICE COMMAND.
They started talking more often, about love, life, lust and everything you would image two love birds would do. This plays for a while before he realises the very same operating system must be doing to all the owners of that operating systems! Ouch, that feels like someone dropped you from a 100th floor of a building.
The intensity with which Joaquin Rafael Phoenix (Theodore) has acted is truly mesmerizing, all the time he spends talking to his earpiece is incredibly brilliant.
Most that I loved about the movie is the fact that how realistically they have conceptualized the world in 2025, no fancy flying saucers or dazzling lights, not at all. Just that technology has improved and you see more and more people talking to themselves when you go out (talking into their ear pieces).
This is different, do watch it.
