Her (2013)

Director: Spike Jonze
Story: Spike Jonze
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Scarlett Johansson 
Music: Arcade Fire 
Time: 127 minutes
Bottom-line: A successful attempt at making a unique love story

Spike Jonze’s Her tells a tale of modern relationships. While all the other Best Picture nominees at this year’s Oscars are either dramas or biopics, Her may be the only actual film belonging to the romance genre. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson in the lead roles, and is largely driven by acting and dialogues. Olivia Wilde, Amy Adams and Rooney Mara play the supporting roles, and, as the title says, the film covers the relationships between one man, and ‘her’, referring to four different women.

Phoenix as Theodore 

L.A 2025 - Theodore Twombly (Phoenix) is a lonely introverted man, whose writes personal love letters on others’ behalf. His break-up with his childhood friend, Catherine (Mara) has left him distraught. He purchases OS 1, which is an operating system that ‘develops and grows’ with experience (or in other words, is artificially intelligent). The OS names itself Samantha (Johansson). Samantha learns all about Theodore’s life and gives him advice on dating. Eventually Theodore and Samantha fall in love with each other. How this unlikely relationship between a man and an operating system turns out, forms the rest of the film.

Amy Adams as Amy

The story has several needless scenes, but in the end, the lingering romance will leave you emotional. As I said before, the story is basically the relationships a man has with four women. One, his childhood friend Catherine, whom he loved deeply; two a woman with whom he goes with on a blind date, Amelia (Olivia Wilde); three, a long-term friend, Amy (Adams), with whom he remains friends; and four, an operating system, who understands him the most. Often we see that memories of Catherine prevent Theodore from falling in love with others, but Samantha, who also has experience of Theodore’s life, manages to make him love her back. The fights in a relationship, the joyous moments, the evanescent feelings of anger or pity are shown brilliantly in the film. The basic idea of the story reminds me of another line from a 1991 science fiction film, Terminator 2, where Sarah Connor says, “If a machine can understand humans, one day, so can we.”

Rooney Mara as Catherine

The acting by Phoenix is splendid. His portrayal of loneliness, sadness, the little instances of joy and anger are superb. Scarlett Johansson’s face is never shown, but her voice modulation is excellent. Through her dialogues and the way she speaks them alone, she makes the viewers believe that a machine can really act like a human. At times she is angry, at times happy, at times romantic and at times curious, and in all these cases, her vocal work is superb. Amy Adams and Rooney Mara have acted well too, even if they come for only about 15 minutes throughout the film.

Olivia Wilde as Amelia

                               The dialogues are in many places profane, and in this aspect, Jonze could have done a better job by reducing the number of swear words. The script, however, is excellent. Jonze's imagination should be appreciated. Through the dialogues alone, Jonze manages to put forth questions. Human relationships are not always perfect. Love failures are often painful. If the human mind and soul are not capable of handling this human emotions (as Catherine says), what happens? Does one become a brooding recluse? Who knows, maybe in the real future, operating systems like the one shown in the film may really be invented. Are machines the only solution? Will humans go to such an extent, that we find more comfort in machines than other fellow humans…? The score is melodious, and is perfect, given the scenario and story.

OS 1

To sum up, Spike Jonze’s Her is a different sort of film. It is a mixture of many genres: traces of sci-fi in the beginning, some amount of comedy too, but mostly, romance. Brilliant acting by Joaquin Phoenix and equally talented voicing by Johansson drive the film. The story is occasionally deviating, but manages to come back on track. By the end of the film, two things stick to you: one, the romance between Theodore and Samantha; two, the questions put forth by Jonze (or rather, the questions I feel Jonze has put forth). Of all the Best Picture nominees, Her may be the only one which actually makes you think.

My Rating: 4/5
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 94%