Martha and Her Trail of Self-Centered Destruction

      We have all suffered loss in some way or another. Some have lost pets, others acquaintances, and, in the worst case scenario, loved ones. Just as we have all been stripped of their presence, we all grieve. We lament in strange ways. Martha from the movie "Be Right Back," just happened to mourn in a very detrimental way. Not only was it traumatic for herself, it was agonizing for everyone else involved. In the movie, Martha's husband, Ash, dies in a car accident. She is given the opportunity to talk to him again through emails and messages with an artificial intelligence that is programmed with Ash's Internet posts throughout his life time. Personally, I find this to be a rather fascinating invention. Imagine getting to resolve conflicts that had existed in the relationship before the person's demise. This could have been a truly wonderful way to help a human receive closure if properly regulated by a doctor or psychiatrist. If the client is left to their own devices, things could become psychologically damaging like they were for Martha. In a sense, she lost Ash not only once but twice.

      One thing is for sure though, Ash 2.0 was not truly Ash. He was merely a shadow of the real Ash. Ash 2.0 was programmed only with what the real Ash had put on the Internet and shown on the outside. There was no way to find out what the true Ash was like. Ash 2.0 became what Martha believed her husband to be, but all Ash 2.0 could do was fall short of her expectations. There are examples of Ash 2.0 failing Martha's concept of Ash scattered throughout the movie. The most dynamic one that caused my heart and mind to clash was the scene where Martha, fed up with Ash 2.0, orders him to jump off a cliff into the ocean. He agrees, for his programming up to that point has shown that he must oblige to this despite never showing signs of suicidal thoughts or acts of self-harm in his database of Ash's posts. Martha is distraught and yells at him about how the real Ash would have reacted if confronted with this situation. Once it registers into Ash 2.0's software, he performs just as instructed, crying and begging her not to make him jump. It sent chills down my spine because Ash 2.0 was created to assist Martha with closure, but, instead of closure, Martha used him to attempt to bring her husband back from the dead. Since Ash 2.0 was unable to satisfy Martha's desires, he is punished and stored in the attic like one would store an old toy that you cannot bring yourself to discard. Just because one person cannot stand to play with the old toy, does not mean someone else won't enjoy it as is the case of Martha's daughter a few years down the road.