Review: Her

Released: 14^th February

Certificate: 15

Director: Spike Jonze

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara

In the not too distant future, middle class Los Angeles has become a hipster’s paradise in which everyone interacts with their voice controlled, cigarette case-sized personal computer via a single earplug. The improbably named Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) writes other people’s love letters for them while trying to get over the end of his marriage to Catherine (Rooney Mara). When the first artificially intelligent operating system is released, lonely Theodore purchases it and activates Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson), who quickly becomes a more complex entity than even her creators could have foreseen.

By exploring a relationship that exists outside of the physical realm, Her provides a fascinating meditation into the nature of romance, and is tantalisingly reluctant to provide any hard and fast answers. Is Theodore escaping the responsibilities and confrontations that come with a relationship with a ‘real’ person? What are the criteria for ‘real’ anyway, when a supposedly artificial intelligence displays emergent properties that blow the Turing Test out of the water?

It is in these philosophical curiosities that Her makes its impact, providing a poignant allegory for anyone struggling to make a relationship work in the face of physical, cultural or geographical differences. It’s just unfortunate that the exploration of these questions doesn’t provide a more riveting cinema experience. Phoenix’s Theodore is interesting and sympathetic, but not quite enchanting enough to carry the film, and despite Johansson’s excellent voice acting, not seeing the two actors interact onscreen definitely feels like there’s something missing. This is felt particularly starkly in comparison to the scenes where the increasingly impressive Amy Adams shines as Theodore’s friend, Amy.

The cinematography is effective in anchoring the film in the fantastical, with soft, dreamlike edges emphasising the feeling of a possible (but by no means definite) future. Subtle shifts in focus go some way to injecting a more dynamic feel into Theodore’s interactions with the invisible Samantha. However, the ubiquitous pastel primary colours and recurring flashback montages sometimes invoke the spectre of Apple and HTC advertisements a little too blithely, making the whole thing feel at times oddly corporate and clinical.

Verdict: 3.5/5