Written and Directed by Spike Jonze
and Rooney Mara
Her is a story about a love
affair, but not a love affair as we know it, but a love affair with technology.
Spike Jonze has directed and written a
chilling story about our not too distant future. And he does it brilliantly. Her is insightful, smart, funny and sublimely
original.
Theodore Twombly(Joaquin
Phoenix) is an awkward and socially self conscious everyman who lives in Los Angeles . But the city
looks different: The high-rises are
higher, everything is gleaming and clean, as if it is hermetically sealed.
Theodore is a professional
letter writer who produces beautiful hand written love letters for people who
have forgotten how to write or express emotions.
Like most of the other Los Angelinos, he
plays interactive video
games, in lieu of having personal relationships. He is going through an unwanted divorce.
One day he buys a new
interactive operating system, the OS1.
A sultry voice announces its
presence. The voice is ‘Samantha’,(Scarlett Johanssen) who is designed to reflect and respond to his needs.
A relationship between the man and the Operating System commences.
Theodore and Samantha have middle of the night conversations,
early morning conversations: in fact, he is with her non stop.
She praises him, makes appointments for him, promotes his work,
helps organize his life. She even sets him up with a surrogate sexual partner. Samantha is a perfect human being, only she is an operating system. Of course, they fall in love.
He takes Samantha on excursions where she sees
through the lens of his smartphone which he places in his front pocket. But soon he notices that everyone seems to
have their phones facing out of their front pockets, lost in the world with their own OS1
systems.
Joaquin Phoenix reflects not
onlyTheodore’s angst but also his joy when he is ‘with’ Samantha. He is alone on screen interacting with a
voice throughout Her, and his acting never hits a false note.
Scarlett Johanssen develops a perfect chemistry with Phoenix ..
She is never on screen, but
she becomes a perfectly developed character.
Her raises many questions
about our love affair with
technology. It already monopolizes much of our lives.Can it be a surrogate for real human connections? How are human beings being affected as a result of it? We already have difficulties
connecting with others. How wonderful to have an OS1
that anticipates our every need. Spike Jonze has insightfully
created an ingenious world, not too far from our own.
Are virtual affairs an
inevitable result of our relationship to technology? See Her and make up your own mind.