Discussing
Spike Jonze’s Her and the limits of technology

Josh Larsen

TimF
January 10, 2014

The film reminds me of the scene in the original Total Recall where they have a highly attractive hologram woman and chair to sit in that then makes you feel like she's touching you. (I saw it on TV, so it was probably edited down from the R rated version.)

Relationships with computers taking the place of flesh and blood, though? I don't think that's what these movies are about. They're about human interaction, and what those relationships really are.

That makes these movies a good way for us to see the importance of the incarnation. We can relate better to God because his nature includes being fully human in Jesus Christ. God's wisdom in joining us as a human within creation is astounding.

Josh Larsen
TC Staff
January 10, 2014

Thanks for the comment, Tim. You touch on something - Her as a reflection of the Incarnation - that Brett McCracken explores in depth in his Christianity Today review: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/december-web-only/her.html

TimF
January 10, 2014

Thanks for the link, Josh.

timfall.wordpress.com

Kelly Ve
January 20, 2014

One scene is really sticking with me. It's when Samantha reveals that she loves 600+ other people. Theodore argues that if she loves all of them then it isn't real, she isn't his. But she says, "Love isn't a box" - it has no bounds. My mind took a mini-tangent away from the movie at that point. It is very easy to imagine an operating system talking to millions of people at one time, developing relationships, and loving each one deeply.
Running parallel to that, I've always marveled, wondered, at times doubted how God could possibly be listening to and loving each and every one of us, all the time, without ceasing. Strange as it may be, Samantha's character made God's omnipotence more tangible.

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