Her

Her (2013) by Spike Jonze

From my sophomore year in high school (back in 2002) until around 2008 or so, I had what I can only describe as an online "relationship" with a girl I'd met at a camping trip.

We'd met and seen each other only once, for a few brief hours, and reconnected online using AIM (remember when that was a thing?) Every evening she and I would go online and converse for hours, talking about our days, our struggles, and our feelings. We grew to really care about each other. We came to love each other, in that stupid high school "it probably doesn't even matter" sort of way. When I graduated high school, she mailed me a graduation card with a picture of herself. When she graduated, I sent her one. Gradually, as the years passed, we spoke less and less. Until one day, she graduated college. I sent her a graduation card and a handwritten letter. We'd been in each others lives for about six years, and in that time only had those brief hours together when we were teenagers. I wrote her a goodbye, saying we'd always be friends, and she'd never be forgotten.

Her is the movie that reminded me exactly how that relationship, looking at it now, really did mean something.

Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore Twombly,  a forty-something living in a Los Angeles that is not too far off into the future. He is going through a divorce with Catherine (Rooney Mara), works at an online "handwritten card" company ascribing feelings and emotions to other people's relationships, and is desperately lonely. He lives his little life, playing video games and being introverted, a timid man living a comfortably uncomfortable life. Intrigued by an artificially intelligent operating system (known simply as "OS"), Theodore makes the purchase, tailoring the program to fit and meet his personality. The two are "introduced" as the OS is adapting itself, choosing a female voice and personality, and dubbing itself "Samantha" (voiced by Scarlett Johannson). As Theordore tries (and fails) to commit and connect with the women around him, he finds that most of his needs are met by Samantha, and the two fall in love. Their relationship grows, yes, and they have their hangups, but Samantha is always with him, always interested in him, and pushes him to grow. She improves his writing (both grammatically, and stylistically, as his muse), and through him, Samantha learns what it means to have emotions, and what it means to even have consciousness. But, ultimately, they both prove too limiting to each other. They've grown together because of and in spite of each other.

This is an extremely sublime film.

Theodore and Samantha's infatuation relates perfectly in today's climate, where so many of our daily interactions are digital and rooted in a wireless existence. The paradox of being alive now is that for how interconnected and instant our lives are, so many remain disconnected emotionally, unable to relate to anyone in person. Even Theodore's job itself is a replacement for daily interactions: people pay a company to create heartfelt messages, dictated by a third person, and printed to appear handwritten. Emotions are an afterthought to be considered only after the fact, and that itself is a concept I myself feel. On the train ride home today, nowhere was there a headphone not in someone's ear, or a phone in someone's hand.

Again, that interconnectivity becomes all-empowering and extremely hindering simultaneously. Samantha knows everything about Theodore, based on his contacts, emails, daily interactions and, when he is able to carry her around on his phone, she can even see and travel with him. She hires a surrogate body to act as her and carry out her physical will; but she can never be someone physical, someone Theodore can lean on or hug. In return, Theodore is limited by his own mind and mortality; in later scenes he tries to read about psychology and philosophy, and theoretical mathematics, and tells her "after reading this a day, I'm almost done with this one page. This is way beyond me." As much as they love each other, there is too much of a gap, and in this case, love just isn't enough.

And the sublime qualities and philosophical implications of the movie come into play with these quandaries. Can a program become self-aware enough to genuinely feel? Even Samantha wonders about this, wondering if she is capable of love and emotion, or if she is just processing information in a way that is pre-programmed, and reacting in kind? Is it possible for her to grow into something far beyond even she imagined? And, finally, is it possible for Theodore to be so transformed by an artificial entity that he is never the same? Is it possible for him to exist beyond his own physical limitations (much like the OS-created Dr. Alan Watts, a program based on a philosopher dead from the 1970s and voiced by Brian Cox)? So much is brought up, and I love this movie for it.

Director Spike Jonze and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema create a palette that is both lush and warm in color and sterile in its composition (at least early on, prior to the depth of the Theodore/Samantha relationship). Theirs is a Los Angeles blanketed in neon and primary colors, a post-Tokyo environment with sterile, IKEA-apartment rooms. It is a future only about 5 years removed from the present. The camera follows Theodore, holding for long takes that would seem to mimic Samantha's seeming omnipresence over him as well, while intimacy is always hinted at but never explicitly shown (such as Theodore and Samantha's...intimate scene. You'll know what I mean. It's actually quite beautiful).

The score by Arcade Fire is a perfect counterpoint to the tone and beauty of the film, while Karen O's songs, sung by Johannson in that uniquely deep voice are actually quite haunting and extremely touching. The cast and supporting characters (particularly Amy Adams, who plays Theodore's friend Amy) are all terrific. Amy's character develops a relationship with her own OS, a situation that, as is revealed, becomes more common with the populace as the OS grows and evolves. But ultimately, Amy and Theodore, for all their introversion and solitude, find that they need the interaction that could only be found in other human beings. While they might not fill each and every one of their needs, they fill enough of each other's to matter. And my God...Scarlett Johannson is absolutely amazing in her role, imbuing Samantha with so much personality that she sits right beside HAL 9000 and GERTY in regards to amazing, resonant computer characters. She (Samantha) is perfect.

I could go on and on about how this film provoked so many questions about philosophy of mind, and memories of discussing David Chalmers in college, and debating whether physical experience is nothing more than an illusion, or whether we are all just processing and reacting to electrical impulses (much like Samantha.) This is a film ripe for discussion on so many levels, and equally as heartbreaking on so many levels.

My girlfriend cried twice. At the end of the film, all I felt was that if this film were a physical thing, I would hug it. This is one of the best films I've seen in the last 3-5 years, and definitely one of the most rich.

This is a film that reminds me why sometimes the only thing I need in life is a good movie. I love this film, and in watching it remember what it was like to really fall in love for the first time. I will definitely be seeing it again.

And you know what? I still have that card tucked away somewhere.