Her: She has a Great Personality!

Did I ever love Her, the fascinating science fiction romance from writer-director Spike Jonze. Sometimes the best films are the ones that feel like great short stories and that’s definitely the atmosphere Jonze conjures up here. Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoneix) is a professional letter-writer in the last gasps of a divorce who falls in love with his computer operating system – Samantha – evoked by a disembodied Scarlett Johansson. Her is the kind of science fiction we don’t get nearly enough of, set in a very near future just over the horizon that’s really all about the here and now, and what we’ll look like when we get there.

Her is about being connected – figuratively and literally. This future is the Now we all inhabit – the plugged-in iPhone reality of being more intertwined with each other than ever on one level, while feeling potentially more detached than ever in ways we've yet to even grasp. How would a lonely person respond if their operating system related to their questions? If it asked as many questions about you as you asked it? In Her, we glimpse artificial intelligence that not only learns, but yearns – and dreams of evolving to become something beyond its installation. That not only adapts to better respond to you but wants to create a relationship with you that satisfies and reciprocates on every level.

Jonze imagines the future with beautiful simplicity and convincing grace notes. He and cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema (who just wrapped Interstellar) collaborate with the film’s designers to give us one of the simplest and most arrestingly visual right-next-door futures depicted on film. Much of Her was shot in Shanghai, whose 80-story skyscrapers and sweeping walkways give us a very believable future Los Angeles, albeit with more bullet trains than cars. The music (by Arcade Fire) is splendid – release this soundtrack, already! If Her has cinematic spiritual cousins, both Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Lost in Translation come to mind. Though I was just as reminded of Charly (Flowers for Algernon) and Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Jonze has crafted a real original.

The cast is phenomenal on all fronts, particularly Phoenix, doing some of his best work here, who feels palpably joined with Samantha in a relationship that’s more than a little hypnotic. Given the cautionary premise, Her is incredibly charming, innocent, smart, sweet and uplifting. The film does a great job of capturing relationship moments – initial giddy attractions, new-found freedoms and shared discoveries, anxieties and inner turmoil. The film is full of wonderful little scenes. A moment involving the hesitation of a pen, poised to sign, is achingly intimate and vulnerable. Amy Adams and Rooney Mara both do wonderful work here.

Her is a story about personality and identity – what happens to them within the filters of relationships and technology? How does a kindred “other” change us, or become part of us? Does Self blossom or become more defined when shared? Her should absolutely not be missed. Like Samantha, it will engage and amuse you…and leave you with some fascinating questions. Its easily one of the best films of the last year.