Her (2013)

 

Originally published in The Daily Nebraskan, 01/21/2013

He stares straight into our eyes, his face filling the screen. In his delicate voice, he tells us how much we mean to him. The camera moves slowly to reveal he is dictating a letter to a computer program which produces virtual handwritten letters. He is not the only one doing this. He works in an office full of people doing the same thing, each of them hired to help voiceless people share their feelings. They spend their lives expressing ideas and love that aren’t theirs.

            Theodore Twombley, played by the great Joaquin Phoenix, is timid, insecure and a bit unremarkable. He’s also compassionate and loving, but above all, he’s lonely. He lives in a massive city with millions of other people like him. Something is missing. He feels like a piece of him has been torn away; his wife has divorced him and he refuses to sign the papers. 

            He withdraws into himself, whittling away the time by playing advanced video games, having phone sex, endlessly checking his e-mail. In many shots, he is framed against skyscrapers and huge lights, monuments to our progress as human beings. For all the progress we’ve made, monuments we’ve built and battles we’ve won, we’re still no better as a species at connecting with one another. 

            Spike Jonze’s gorgeous new film, “Her,” explores the nature of love by having its main character fall in love with an artificial consciousness. Thinking that buying some new technology will be just another distraction from his creeping loneliness, Theodore gets a new operating system, the OS1, which can learn and adapt as a thinking personality. He sets the voice to female. In seconds, she gives herself the name Samantha. 

Samantha (Scarlett Johanssen in an affecting voice role) gets to know Theodore better than anyone else. After Theodore blows a blind date, he shares his frustration with Samantha, and they develop feelings for each other. They are not the only ones in this situation.

Jonze’s sci-fi script, nominated for an Academy Award, balances humor with potent emotion and wisdom. Those who have felt the joy and pain of finding and losing love will feel themselves in familiar territory. The near-future scenario will be familiar as well, reminding us that digital technology is increasingly becoming a part of the human condition. Jonze seems to want to tell us that no matter what, we will always be human, and part of being human is being conscious, and connecting with other consciousness. 

Some say that all human achievements can be described as attempts to impress the opposite sex. I think that’s an interesting thought to keep in mind while watching this film. In this time, technology has advanced to the point where humans can replicate consciousness, and so we can replicate romantic relationships, which are arguably at the center of human society. Even though, in “Her,” we’ve finally gotten to that point, there are still troubles. Theodore and Samantha endure difficulties together, just like two flesh-and-blood humans. The resolution between them towards the end of the film suggests we don’t have as much control over our emotions, or our technology, as we thought.

All this existential musing isn’t necessary to enjoy the film. It’s a simple premise with enough honesty and inspiration to appeal to a wide range of audiences. It’s a great date movie, full of humor and warmth. The cinematography is colorful and vibrant, but not overwhelming. The original score by Arcade Fire is intimate and meditative, and Karen O’s “The Moon Song,” a duet between Theodore and Samantha, is so painfully beautiful it drove me to tears.

“Her” manages to be one of the best romantic comedies of recent memory, and one of the best science fiction films. Like all great science fiction, it uses the technology we create to explore the mysteries of the human condition. It’s an almost perfect film, and one of the best of 2013. See it. You’ll fall in love with it.