“The past is just a story we keep telling ourselves”
In Spike Jonze’s latest movie Her we have the very earnest and heartfelt Theodore, a writer living in a not so far off futuristic DTLA (that OMG! has a train going all the way to the beach) who is just going through the tale-end of a divorce and happens to come across the latest OS system that has just been released; it is capable of feeling real human emotions and evolving as its own “being”. It’s funny, too, because the movie’s “OS” name is almost identical to our precious “iOS” systems we carry around like some sort of cyborgs. So this movie, while seeming like it might be totally unrealistic, isn’t too far off from our technological Internet-filled lives. That being said, don’t think for one second that this is going to be like, “too” weird of a movie, or something.
When Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) inevitably starts to fall in love with Samantha (voiced by the always lovely-sounding Scarlett Johansson), aka his new OS, things get little weird. Because telling you’re co-workers you’re dating a computer is, well, kind of weird. Or is it? From the get go Theo and his OS get along and make each other laugh; they even talk dirty and, you guessed it: totally have sex. Well kind of. It’s just like a big black blur with hot noises for a few minutes. But hey, whatever works! Not to mention Samantha seems to fill him with ease as he ends things with his ex Catherine (Rooney Mara) (she hasn’t even signed the papers yet!).
Samantha and Theodore, like most couples, go to the beach together, talk about science, recall the past—she even writes brilliant piano pieces for him while they lay in the park, because that’s what an OS does. One drawback of the system though is that, while providing love and companionship with one, they are also “seeing” over 8,000 other lonely souls who have given the new evolutionary system a try (like, hello: jealousy!)
But all bullsh*t aside, Theodore’s is a lucky guy, especially when it comes to having cool building mates like Amy (Amy Adams) (who also starts dating an OS after a divorce) to share the ups and downs of his life, like you know, those awkward one night stands and what it’s like to essentially date a computer. He writes letters for a living, lives in a really sweet apartment, and plays this crazy video game system on the reg, chatting with this super offensive character voiced by Bill Hader. He also just so happens to be dating an OS, a thing that becomes so normal by the end of the movie it’s like we were actually living it the whole time.
Her basically left me feeling like I should probably just spend the rest of my life alone (with my phone) after all of that disappointment (don’t worry, I won’t spoil the end for you.) But hey, let’s just say if Scarlett Johansson was my OS girlfriend, I’d probably fall for her too…
(photos via Slate & Screen Crave)
