Review of Herø (2001) by Rick S — 02 Jan 2015

You're dating an operating system. When you tell people, what kind of reaction do you expect? Fortunately whatever you have in your head is nearly entirely absent from "Her" because the future society shown here has evolved alongside each step of the technology - the act of dating an OS is new but understandable.

This isn't a story about the herd but rather the individual, whether they are man-made by fusing zygotes or man-made by fusing knowledge with creativity. If you were just your brain plugged into the cloud (albeit a super brain able to read a book in 0.

2 seconds), what would you feel and who would you be? If you could communicate and travel alongside a human via their devices, and bonded, what challenges would your relationship have? This is the film's focus along with Theodore's biggest challenge that ended his first marriage, which is how to keep long-term relational intimacy while each individual changes over time.

Phoenix and Johansson are adorable to watch together here, which is pretty incredible considering there is only one meatbag ever present. A fascinating, bittersweet story with a visionary end that surprised me but now seems inevitable.