“Her,” written and directed by Spike Jonze, is a unique blend of science fiction and romance that inevitably compels audiences.
“Her” is realistic enough to grasp audiences and unique enough to become a timeless film that strikes us just like classics such as “Bicentennial Man” or “Wall-E.” It has already won a Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay since it started showing in theaters in December and has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
The cinematography is striking and well planned. The film is not only a modern love story but also a work of art, which can be expected from the director of “Where the Wild Things Are” and “Being John Malkovich.”
The scenes do not always include dialogue but nevertheless tell the film’s story through lighting, facial expressions or music of a film score composed by Arcade Fire and Karen O.
Joaquin Phoenix plays a sensitive, lonely man named Theodore Twombly who writes love letters for people with difficulties expressing their feelings. Set in a reality that seems not far off, the film tells a story of the near future, where people walk alone and interact with their high-tech Bluetooth devices rather than the people around them. Ironically, the most sensitive people are the loneliest, bound to resort to online dating and phone sex.
As a character similar to Ryan Gosling in “Lars and the Real Girl,” Twombly falls in love with the voice of Scarlett Johansson, who plays an Operating System named Samantha that artificially interacts like a human. Jonze also brings in stars Amy Adams and Olivia Wilde to accompany Phoenix.
In a beautiful twist on a love story, a human falls in love with him computer more and more as she develops her own consciousness, while Twombly is enraptured by the fact that she is awe-struck by the world around her. While the film exemplifies the predictably bleak, smoggy future that we may experience in a couple decades, there are hints of romanticism and new life as Samantha represents not a machine but rather an appreciation for the world that the human race has lost.
In an age where we sleep with our smart phones, the film is not only a romance but also a technological satire. However, while a movie like “Her” would best end with Twombly realizing in his synthetic love that there is no real replacement for human interaction, it ends somewhat flatly and lacking of any real profundity.
Nevertheless, rather than leading us to fear the day when our devices develop a mind of their own, the film provides an alternate reality where our devices can strengthen the lonely human being that has no other companion.