Review of Herø (2001) by Daniel R — 23 Aug 2014

10/10.

Featuring the most unique script since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Her is a wonderful film about relationships, personal growth, letting go, and moving on. The performances are great all around, especially Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore Twombly. Theodore lives in an unspecified time in the future, where technology has advanced to respond to the specific commands of the user. As a side note, the implementation of this technology is truly fascinating and very possible. Theodore writes letters for a living. Letters for other people to other people. Something of an evolved greeting card service. He is exceptional at what he does, at saying to someone what another wants to say but may have difficultly expressing. This is very much in contrast with his personal life, where he has difficulty dealing with real emotions, his own or anyone else's. It is because of this difficulty that his wife, Catherine (Rooney Mara), has left him. He is devastated by this and cannot move on. Then Theodore meets Samantha, his new operating system that has been personalized specifically for him. She has the breathy, sultry voice of Scarlett Johansson, and she seems very real from the beginning. She has humor, intuition, and a constantly evolving personality. It isn't long before Theodore begins to open up to Samantha, who does not judge him but at the same time doesn't pander to him. She listens and even tries to encourage him, offering advice and empathy. She soon opens up as well, because she is beginning to change and feel and wonder about who she is. Their relationship grows into something that is at times bizarre and at other times very sweet, kind of like love between people. The ups and downs that Theodore and Samantha experience is wonderful and painful to watch and it soon begins to shed the stigma of its inherent oddity to the point where you can't help but care about what happens between them, because we all know what love feels like and how precious it is, and also just how fragile it can be. Her is a special film, because it manages to not only sell a difficult concept, but find more humanity in it than most other films only dream to.