Review of Her (2013) by Dierregi — 05 May 2014

"Her" boils down to sad sack, emotionally challenged Theodore, sort of "falling" for his OS Samantha and masturbating to her voice, then they break up - actually, Samantha dumps him, just like a real girl would.

Hardly a romantic concept and more the story of a guy unable to handle real life and disappointments, and finding solace in his imaginary world.

Actually, Theodore's "love" seemed to be hardly more than disguised lust, as proved by an early scene with him getting in touch with sleepless females to masturbate with their "encouragement". Maybe because I always found phone sex slightly ridiculous, I saw in Theodore's cyber sex nothing more than an evolution of the old "sex with a stranger" concept. What Theodore seemed to be looking for was attention, adoration and sexual solace from a female creature, existing only to take care of his needs and asking for nothing in return. It is hard to think about a more selfish form of "love".....

Besides, the concept of falling in love with unreachable people (being them rock stars or imaginary creatures) is nothing new. What is new is the technological support we have at our disposal, which encourages us to do so, thus avoiding all the inconveniences of a real relationships.

A couple of plus points of an otherwise boring movie were the atmospheric soundtrack and the interesting photography and costumes - drab enough to look like real clothes, rather than futuristic uniforms.