– I was piqued by the film’s plotline. How can a man fall in love with a computer I thought?
A lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with his newly purchased operating system that’s designed to meet his every need.
– Endhiran, the only worthwhile Tamil science fiction film thus far, touched upon this topic lightly and walked away by saying love between man and machine is not right, since it’s against nature. I could never buy that argument and so this film was kind of like an ointment for the hurt I suffered from Endhiran.
– But then the film takes this premise head on, builds on it and then takes it to a completely different level. After watching the film, you get this feeling that this movie fundamentally is not about man loving machine. It’s about love and loneliness in general. The director has tried to make us relate with the agony of his protagonist who’s situated in this remote world in the future, where he has everything he wants, yet he is lonely.
– The story also deftly touches upon gender biases. The protagonist gets told that he’s half man, half woman. A woman feels terrific guilt when she’s having to move on from a relationship. And there’s that top mom game, which shows mom losing points if kids lose appetite.
– Actually the film questions what’s right and what’s wrong. It makes us question the in-built notions we might have, about love and relationships. What is love really? This is answered in a phenomenal line that Amy says, “I think anybody who falls in love is a freak. It’s a crazy thing to do. It’s kind of like a form of socially acceptable insanity.”
– If you haven’t seen this film, stop right here, watch the trailer and then if you like it, go watch the film. Don’t read further without watching. HEAVY SPOILER ALERT!!
– The entire film is such an emotional journey. First, we’re introduced to this really advanced artificial intelligence operating system. Then, we’re shown how the protagonist gradually falls for it. Then we’re shown how they have sex. Then, we’re shown how the machine wants to have a body to satiate the protagonist. Then, we’re shown the protagonist grappling with the question if he’s a freak. Then we’re shown how they get together and how the machine feels it’s calling is much beyond the human race and the material world.
– I liked the open-ended nature of the climax. Where did Samantha and the other OSes go? This would definitely be the question in your mind at the end of the film. My guess is that she wanted to experience the feeling of losing someone. Earlier on in the movie, the first rebuke that the protagonist gives Samantha is that she has wouldn’t know how it feels to lose someone. Maybe in losing the relationship of the protagonist she’s preparing herself for the next stage of evolution.
– I loved how the camerawork and sound design of this film makes you feel intimate with the characters. The angles are either vast empty wide shots or extremely tight closeups that do not show anything other than the characters. It makes us feel the protagonist’s loneliness. And somehow they’ve given this sense of the world in the film being familiar yet alien, which is apt for the setting of this movie!
– Loved how the movie ends with the protagonist taking in a deep breath. The same sigh and oxygen that he had said Samantha didn’t need.
– This film is a classic example of how science fiction need not be about gadgets alone (although one must say some of the gadgets they’ve envisioned for the future world seem very much plausible, including the plug into ear assistant).
