The film under discussion Her by Spike Jonze premiered at New York Film Festival in 2013. This film represents a combination of science fiction and romantic drama, as it incorporates conventions from both of these genres. This paper will focus on the analysis of the mentioned film from the perspective of intercultural and interpersonal concepts of relationships.
The plot of the film is built around a man named Theodore Twombly, who works for a company writing love letters for other people in some undetermined future. Theodore is going through a rough patch in his life, as he recently divorced his first love – Catherine, and that is where the audience finds him – unhappy, lonely, and deeply depressed. After seeing an impressive advertisement of an operating system with a virtual assistant, Theodore purchases it. He is skeptical of the idea at first, but soon finds himself engaged in constant communication with it.
The second character is Samantha – the program that Theodore starts loving as if she was a real person. She accepts Twombly’s views and decisions, trying to assist him in all spheres of life. Emotions of the emotionless machine is one of the main issues in the film. Furthermore, Samantha is developing throughout the plot, starting as an obedient and appeasable assistant that wants to get a body and become a human and ending as an independent polygamous creature.
The primary intercultural concept that might be applied to the relationships in the film might be alienation. Idleness and isolation from other people are the main traits of the protagonist. He alienates himself from society and the ones who love him and chooses the relationships with the program instead. However, during the development of the plotline of Theodore and Amy, the self-disclosure interpersonal concept takes place. They reveal their interests and pain and start trusting each other more.
Samantha might apply the accommodating conflict strategy regarding her relationships with Theodore. This approach means that the one implementing the accommodating strategy accepts an interlocutor’s wishes, not absolutely (The Participation Company).
Samantha agrees with the ideas and aspirations of Twombly but to the exact extent. She guides him through crowded places, assists while playing computer games but also encourages him to meet with friends and find new romantic relationships. However, Samantha also implements the competing conflict strategy, which means that she strives her idea to become a human as close as possible whatever it takes (The Participation Company). Samantha abandons Theodore and prefers him to her interpretation of the essence of relationships – Samantha starts communicating with more than 8000 people simultaneously.
Regarding Theodore and Samantha’s relationships, it should be stated that they have formed their relations in an unconventional fashion as Samantha is not a human. Hence, they have gone through stages of relationships in an extraordinary manner. The stages of romance and stability were integrated because Samantha is an emotionless stable system while Theodore admires this fact. When reality sets in, the protagonist cannot take the fact that Samantha simultaneously communicates with thousands of people. Theodore’s disappointment and breaking up are connected with what Samantha considers development step when she becomes polygamic. Thus, such an unusual pair fails to the final stage of commitment.
It might be concluded that Her covers a plethora of topics depicting characters and developing the plot creatively. The intercultural concept of alienation and the interpersonal concept of self-disclosure were applied to discuss the relationships in the movie. Then, it was assumed that Samantha implemented the accommodating and competing conflict strategies throughout the film. The stages of relations between Theodore and Samantha were characterized as unusual and incoherent.
Work Cited
The Participation Company. “5 Conflict Resolution Strategies We All Use.” The Participation Blog, 2016. Web.