Review of Her (2013) by Mj A — 29 Sep 2015

Have you ever thought about the word 'love'? Do you REALLY know how it works and what it does?

Let's talk about the film Her, starring one of the pioneers in the world of acting, Joaquin Phoenix in this sci-fi love story film along with Scarlett Johansson, and Amy Adams. So this is a story of a guy who writes letters for other people and then got into a relationship of an operating system named Samantha (Johansson). First of all, the acting. The performances of Joaquin in this film was really outstanding, as well as the other actors around him. of course, it is given because we already know his capabilities but this is a different take. We can see a different man and the dialogues, oh the dialogues, were perfectly delivered. Of course, Samantha is an operating system that is why there are a lot of dialogues in this film. For me, the best performance here has got to be from Scarlett Johansson. Though she only used her voice, you can really feel the emotion that she brings in every word she utter. You can really feel that even though they are not touching (with Theodore played by Phoenix) you can really see that they do feel each other. I almost though that Samantha were a real person! I love how the film translates it's idea. There may be a lot of interpretations and insights regarding this film so don't hate me, here is my interpretation. well, it speaks mostly about duality, the duality of personality. You can see in their roles, first on Theodore. Theodore and his colleagues are writers of letters from OTHER PEOPLE. You know, for example, I want to give a letter to my mom and then Theodore writes it for me. That's it. And then there is Samantha, the OS. There is a scene there that Samantha hired a girl to represent Samantha when Samantha and Joaquin will have a sexual intercourse. Again, there is the duality. It just explains, for me, that we are sometimes the people that we are not, or somewhat incomplete. This film is so complex although it really captured me. It also talks about how the people, with technology, becomes introspective. It really is relate-able with the world today with all that technology within their fingertips. There are also a lot of symbolism in here where it gets your mind thinking (love that). For example, the boiling of water in the teapot symbolizes the anger that is building inside of Theodore when Samantha met a new OS (as a friend of course). The ending is so hard to figure out I have to watch it a couple of times until I came up with this insight that Samantha left because she is already evolving way past human and they understand humanity as well, but there is still a line that separates the OS's from humans. It feels like they are human but they are not. Also, Theodore knew how to love again through Samantha. So there they are, both Samantha as well as Theodore, evolving and growing as an OS (Samantha) and as a person (Theodore). Amy Adams were also included in the ending and that was perfect because Adams came from a breakup too and she stood up with the help of her friend OS. The ending also talks about moving on and moving forward as to the scene where Theodore already let his love to Catherine (Rooney Mara) go.

Overall, 'Her' is one unique love story that you will surely love and will be on your mind for a long time. 'Her' is a unique film that will catch your attention because of it's uniqueness. Definitely deserving of a five star.