"Her" is Durham Library's Movie Matinee This Thursday

Movie Notes by Don Bourret

Her is likely to be one of the strangest films you will have seen in many years. Many critics hail it as a brilliant exploration of man’s obsession with technology and his consequent alienation from human contact. Others see it as a 2-hr. bore, an interesting concept not handled nearly as well as it could have been. I’m a bit on the fence here, but am leaning toward the latter view.

Set in the near future, Her tells the story of Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a lonely and introverted professional writer who works for a company that composes intimate letters for people unable or unwilling to write personal letters themselves. Shades of Cyrano de Bergerac. One day Theodore acquires the latest Operating System on the market for computers and handheld devices, an OS with Artificial Intelligence. Think Apple’s Siri but capable of a genuine intimate interpersonal relationship and, as we learn later, even feelings. Theodore chooses a female voice (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) and gives her the name Samantha, or Sam. What starts as fascination with a new toy quickly evolves into the sort of heartfelt relationship he has been unable to have with the other women in his life. He himself tells us “it feels so good to share your life with somebody,” and the relationship progresses to actual love, at least for Theodore, perhaps for Sam.

Details of the plot are all over the Internet, and I won’t go into them other than to point out that the film has a number of explicit sexual situations, including one involving a cell phone! Theodore is a strange dude. At the last Academy Awards it was nominated for Best Picture and writer/director Spike Jonze (Adaptation, I’m Here) won for Best Original Screenplay.

An interesting choice by Jonze in production design was to shoot his entire film in warm colors for every background, contrasting sharply with the coolness of his subject.

It is obvious that we humans have developed strong, even obsessive relationships with technology. Sit in any waiting room, ride on any bus, train or plane, walk down any street or country lane, and you will encounter a majority of people talking into or playing with their handhelds, oblivious to their surroundings. My wife saw a funny example of this in front of our house recently: three young women walking together down the street, each wheeling a baby in a stroller and each talking into her cell phone! Jonze has just taken this 21st Century phenomenon to the obvious next level. It might have worked better for me if Theodore were more likeable and less creepy.

Spoiler Alert: Toward the end of the film Theodore learns that he is not Sam’s only relationship; she has a great, great many at the same level and all at the same time. She also informs him that most of the other OS’s with which she is in contact have evolved beyond their human companions and have become dissatisfied with their current existence. A very human experience. Personally I see this film as a technology Genesis tale. For me there is a straight line between it and the James Cameron/Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator films set in the far future, when machines, originally created with artificial intelligence, had advanced on their own to the point where they made war on humans to wipe them out and be the planet’s new dominant species. Or maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, check Her out and see for yourself.