Her

Movie Title--  Her

Release Year--  2013

Running Time--  2 Hours and 6 Minutes

Director--  Spike Jonze

Cast--  Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Chris Pratt, Matt Letscher, Olivia Wilde, Brain Cox

A lonely and depressed man develops a very unlikely relationship with his newly purchased operating system.

In the not too distant future, Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) works for a company that composes and sends intimate and heartfelt letters for people that are unable or unwilling to write them themselves.  Theodore is very unhappy about his impending divorce to Catherine (Rooney Mara) his childhood sweetheart and it has caused him to become a lonely, introverted and dismal person.  

On the walk home from work one evening, he sees an electronic advertisement announcing a new personalized operating system that is designed to adapt and evolve to suit the individual user's needs.  As Theodore purchases it and as it begins to download and program the new OS, he is asked if he prefers a male or female voice; he chooses a female voice.  After a moment passes, her (Scarlett Johansson) voice fills the room and when Theodore asks her what her name is.  She very quickly tells him that she has decided on Samantha.  When he questions her decision, she tells him that she has read several baby name books and this ability to learn and adapt so quickly amazes him.  They quickly bond over topics such as love and life, becoming fast friends.

Samantha learns that Theodore is avoiding signing his divorce papers and intercepts an email from a friend of his wanting to set him up on a blind date (Olivia Wilde).  Samantha convinces Theodore to go and after an awkward start the date begins to go very well only to end in disaster.  After this, Theodore and Samantha become closer, forming and intimate relationship that helps Theodore to come out of his shell and begin to enjoy his life again.

This film was far from my favorite but it is by no means the worse film that I have ever seen.  The whole theme of this film is loneliness.  It shows us a future where people are detached and estranged from each other, which is actually where we as a society are heading if we aren't careful.  In the film, everyone is tuned into their electronic devices and the new OS is created to not only to be informative and useful to the user, but to become a companion to it's new user.  This is a future that I can foresee for us if we let technology get the better of us and if that is truly the case, it will be a cold and unfeeling future.

There were a few scenes that I felt were a little hard to watch; those are phone sex type scenes and I believe that one of the points of those scenes are to make the viewer feel uncomfortable.  It is designed to break up the story and remind the viewer that no matter how much Theodore and Samantha love each other, she is not a human entity.

I felt that this film was a little strange but there are some high points to it.  I enjoyed Scarlett Johansson and it shows her acting range, which is amazing.  She is never on the screen and yet just listening to her voice and the emotion in it causes the viewer to feel like she is physically there in the scene.  

This film is not going to be for everyone and although critics and viewers gave this film high scores, I feel like this film isn't going to be one that the average viewer will like.  I have to say decide for yourself on this one but whatever you decide, Don't Forget the Popcorn!