I think that if I hadn’t watched this movie on a long-haul flight to Singapore this summer, I’d have completely overlooked a total gem of a movie.
In a nutshell, this is the story of Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), who during the throes of divorce installs a new operating system on his computer and falls in love with the artificially intelligent system.
It’s a simply made movie, that relies strongly on its powerful storyline and down-to-earth vision of the natural progression of the handheld devices that many of us have come to rely on.
Smart Phone
Theodore’s smart-phone in this movie is a real beauty; a neat, slim, folding device that connects seamlessly to the rest of his electronic world. The main interface is via a little ear plug that allows him to chat comfortably with his OS.
There’s one particular scene that made me smile. Theodore is playing a video game and talking with Samantha. After a short while, the AI character in the game then begins to interact with her and together, the three succeed in solving one of the game’s puzzles.
Dead Cat
As a sci-fi film, this is bordering on being a chick-flick – certainly one to settle down to with your significant other but not one to watch with your granny. There’s a couple of rather saucy scenes that would be particularly uncomfortable for the easily offended (I had to check my headphone levels on the plane during the bit with the dead cat lady!)