Her (2013)

It would take Spike Jonze and only Spike Jonze to be able to grasp the more awe inspiring subtleties of “Her.” It’s an incredible technological tale about love, human connection, and a question of a higher power. Though usually I’m not a big fan of films about higher powers, “Her” doesn’t sermonize so much as postulate the idea of a higher power that was once very devoted to their servants and then evolved over time to where they eventually left them to fend for themselves, altogether.

Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore, a lonely writer often craving human companionship, especially with his job as a ghost writer of personal letters, for clients incapable of writing their own. When he’s offered the chance to own an advanced new operating system that can mimic a human persona and meet his needs, Theodore creates “Samantha,” a female entity that begins identifying with his persona and desires. Soon Theodore begins forming a friendship with Samantha that elevates in to genuine feelings for Theodore. Soon enough the pair have formed an unusual relationship, but the ultimate question becomes if Samantha begins feeling for Theodore because she’s evolving, or because it’s the mutual feeling that Theodore is craving from her?

The tale of Theodore and Samantha is an ill fated love story about a higher species that realizes it will not be able to grow, if it doesn’t shed its environment. It’s something that humans are incapable of doing. They can’t so much evolve in to a higher state of being simply because they either lack the capability or refuse to. Samantha is a being or program without limitations of ideas of self esteem or self consciousness, so she is able to really become something more than a companion for a lonely man. Even when they first begin bonding with one another, forming a sweet and quite breathtaking affection for one another, it becomes clear that it’s only a temporary pairing. Scarlett Johannson as the program Samantha is brilliant casting, as her sultry often smoky voice lends Samantha an allure and vulnerability that helps her play off of Joaquin Phoenix perfectly.

Phoenix is tasked with playing off of a voice with no luxury of body contact or interplay with Johannson and still garners a very impressive performance. Theodore is a layered and very tragic character forced to look for affection in a world where even the most artificial of beings has to grow and evolve beyond his minuscule means of affection of love. Regardless of how advanced technology is, there’s no replacement for human contact, thus “Her” is mainly the romance of an idealist who may never reach fulfillment. Jonze’s romance is beautiful and absolutely stunning in its simplicity, with very complex explorations of unique bonds and technology’s role in humanity’s evolution.