Her by Spike Jonze (2013)

A story of a melancholic man who falls in love with his computer. Can humans have a genuine relationship with an inhuman entity?

Set in the Los Angeles of the nearby future, Her, Spike Jonze’s exquisite new movie, follows the story of Joaquin Phoenix, who plays the heartbroken Theodore Twombly after the end of a relationship. He holds an ironic day job where he composes personal love letters for those unable to express their emotions. Desperate for any personal connection, he falls for the seductive skills of an artificially intelligent operating system who offers unquestioning allegiance to him. The insightful, witty, and sensitive female voice, portrayed beautifully by Scarlett Johansson, gives herself the name Samantha and is soon organizing Theo’s life, acting as both his personal assistant and therapist. Samantha soon assimilates humanity’s tics and begins to feel emotion, or at least the simulation of it. She expresses this when she says “I want to learn everything about everything. I want to eat it all up. I want to discover myself.” She succeeds in her job of making Theo feel as lively and joyful as ever, but eventually does it too well when she begins acting as a buffer between Theo and his human relationships.

The writing, directing, acting, and cinematography of Her is beautiful. With such a great storyline, the visual storytelling echoes its sentiments. As a true work of science fiction, it sets up a world of upgraded technology with earpieces and holographic video games. Ironically, the advanced technology, which promises to connect us more easily to the world around us, is the reason for Theodore’s lack of human experience. Instead, it results in an illusion of a relationship for him. The work of the cinematographer, Hoyte Van Hoytema, adds depth and meaning to the film in more ways than one. The constant intimate close-ups of Theo, as in the opening scene, gives the feeling of a one person romance and forces the audience to focus and stare straight at him. This enables us to sympathize with Theo; we understand his isolation, happiness, and his rollercoaster of emotions. The sun flares in the close-up shots also gives the film a romantic and wistful feel. Moreover, the consistent flashbacks that portray Theo and Catherine’s happy life together, add a whole deeper level of understanding. It helps the audience to understand the bigger picture and forwards the thematic content. The quiet approach to the soundtrack was also a nice touch. The only instances of music was when Theo explicitly requested Samantha to play a song for him. This also allowed the viewers to think and feel on their own, without letting the background music indicate it.

In addition, the acting could not have been done better. Ms. Johansson’s casting of the voice of the OS was done beautifully; her articulate and expressive tone gives her a palpable form. It’s as if she is whispering into the audience’s ear the entire film. The audience cannot help but wonder about her physicality. The acting of Mr. Phoenix is also impressive. His solitude, quirky character traits, and exotic strangeness makes the entire storyline work.

However, it was also sometimes hard for me to dilate with the movie on an emotional level being that a man has fallen in love with a piece of technology. It was quite unrelatable and I was emotionally detached at times, like the scene where Theo and Samantha were having cybersex, compared to the emotional scenes of Theo and Catherine’s previous happy marriage. However, I soon realized that the point of the film is to draw attention to our dependency of technology and the possible problem of the near future, where technology is more valuable than human communication.

One of the themes that lie in the film is the question that is stated above- can humans have a genuine connection with an object? In this case, Theodore’s character is in such a state of disunity and solitude that anything could fill his void. He, therefore, retreated from other people and turned to technology as an accelerator of social isolation. For example, he’s always playing video games and even turned down hanging with his coworker and wife, just to speak to Samantha. However, by the end of the film, the audience can conclude that technology is only a buffer to genuine emotion; socializing with real humans is the most beneficial, as in the final scene with Theo and Amy comforting each other.

Both the storyline and the acting make Her a memorable film that will never quite leaves your thoughts. Although Siri probably wouldn’t be a fan, I highly recommend Her as a refreshing take on a romantic human saga. It will force you to ponder the question of whether a machine can think or a human being can feel.