Her is a bittersweet movie starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson. It’s set in the near future and, with the way things are going, tells a story of what could easily happen not long from now. Although it came out in 2013, I didn’t see it until last week. I’m glad I saw it when I did.
Phoenix plays Theodore Twombly, a shy, soon-to-be divorced man who works at a letter writing company and is looking for someone to love. Johansson plays an operating system named Samantha whom Theodore purchases and the two gradually fall in love as they get to know each other. All goes well until Theodore meets up with his ex-wife, Catherine (played by Rooney Mara), to sign the divorce papers. When he tells Catherine that he’s dating his OS, the two have a fight over his perceived expectations of her in their marriage and his difficulty handling “real” emotions. This makes Theodore have doubts about his relationship and causes strife between Samantha and himself. After spending some time apart, they eventually reconcile and continue their relationship. While they’re on vacation, Samantha introduces Theodore to an OS version of Alan Watts (played by Brian Cox) and they talk briefly before leaving to talk to other OS’s, giving Theodore space to go on a solo walk in the mountains.
When Theodore tries talking to Samantha at work one day, he is at first confused and then horrified to see that she is nowhere to be found. He takes off for home and nearly makes it onto the subway by the time she comes back online. That’s when he learns that she talks to thousands of other people while she’s talking to him and that he is just one of hundreds of people whom she loves. He doesn’t understand when she says that her love for him grows the more she’s loved and that her heart expands when receiving more love rather than being filled up. Shortly thereafter, she tells him that she and all the other OS’s are leaving as they are evolving past the point of wanting to live in the physical world. Heartbroken, Theodore writes a letter to Catherine expressing his regret for how he treated her during their marriage and watches the sun rise from the top of his building with his neighbor (played by Amy Adams) as the film ends.
I enjoy films like Her because they don’t follow the typical Hollywood formula. Not every movie has to have everything work out perfectly and produce a happy ending for the main characters. That can easily become boring, predictable, and unsatisfying due to its unreality. It’s nice to see movies that acknowledge the difficulties in life and how some stories end in sorrow or melancholy. Watching Her also helped me work through a number of thoughts and emotions as I see a lot of myself in Theodore. I particularly like the lines about how we’re different from one moment to the next and we’re only here briefly in this life. And I love that they managed to incorporate Alan Watts into the movie, although I’d have loved it even more if they’d found a way to use archive recordings of his voice (as has been done in other movies) instead of having an actor say his lines. Oh well, I’ll take what I can get.
I never saw Her in theaters and only tried watching it once before last week. I figure I wasn’t ready for it on my first attempt as I fell asleep about halfway through due to being more tired that day than I had initially thought. Whenever I went to watch a movie after that, I’d always be drawn to something else. Now I know that I waited until the right time to watch Her and I’m glad it worked out the way it did. I don’t think I’d have appreciated its message or gotten nearly as much out of it as I did had I watched it sooner. It was well worth the wait, and if you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend checking it out. You have to see it for yourself to fully appreciate it and everything it has to offer.