Her

Quick question, do you believe in love? Or should I say, does anyone believe in love? And if they really do, what conceptions do they have in mind when they answer the question, what is love? Is it all about respect for one another, or is it about mutual understanding? Loyalty and faithfulness? Or perhaps, Love is the feeling of responsibility you get when you get involved with someone? No matter what’s your answer, Her presents a facade of love that you’ll surely indulge in and won’t be indifferent to. Indeed, when it comes to answering such fundamental questions such as what is love all about and so on, there is a long list of attempts that have been made in order to find out what love is all about, the way we should think about love and so on. Unfortunately, to my mind, all this attempts were in vain. Sure we have Rome and Juliette and so on, but all these just don’t satisfy me, at least until I watched Her.

I must say that this is probably Spike Jonze’s best movie yet, that’s right you got it right, Her even bested Being John Malkovich (which by the way is another movie that stands in a class of its own). I’ll get to that one a bit later. If I were to describe Her in a few words, I’ll have to say that this is a romantic story between a man and an operating system called Samantha, but having this primitive approach when describing this movie won’t do it any justice. Indeed, Her goes way beyond the simple idea of romance in the future, it makes an attempt to portray love in a way we can’t or at least couldn’t perceive a few years back. Just imagine you falling in love with Siri on your iPhone or a service of that nature, and not just falling in love with it because it is such an amazing service that empowers you like most gadgets out there, but actually going in for a genuine relationship with this OS, sounds crazy, right? Well, whether it does or not, that’s exactly what this movie is all about.

The film stars Joaquin Phoenix who plays the role of Theodore Twombly - a lonely, introvert writer who seems to have a hard time getting over his divorce and his ex-wife. And Scarlett Johansson who plays Samantha (the operating system Theodore falls in love with). Though most of you might not be familiar with talent of Joaquin Phoenix, I have to say that this gentleman is the real deal and I can’t possible think of anybody who might have been better for this role. Indeed, Joaquin does look as nerdy as hell in this movie and as surprising as it may be it looks as awesome as hell!!! Though some of you might have stopped on his crack addiction (that's right, Joaquin had a serious crack addiction about which you can watch in a "wonderful documentary" called I'm Still Here) As for Scarlett Johansson, have to say that this is surely one of the most sexiest voices I’ve ever heard and I’m ready to pay some solid dough to have this voice used in Siri. Moreover, I can even see myself actually using Siri if this was the voice she had. All this is to say that the cast in Her looks and sounds solid, and this is such a rare thing these days (I think you know what I’m talking about).

Then there’s the way this movie was shot. One word here… Stellar. I mean, we are all used to the usual special effects and so on that we get in blockbusters and so on, but most of the time it’s all a matter of millions of dollars spent on something that looks intrusive and ugly, and actually useless. I mean, special effects are cool and all but most of the time they don’t make any sense whatsoever. Actually, Her is one of those movie where all this special effects and so on really make sense and rent as intrusive as in a crappy movie such as Transformers. The scenery, costumes and everything else about this movie are gorgeous. So gorgeous in fact that if I were to make a list of the most beautiful movies ever, Her will be somewhere at the very top that’s for sure.

The other major thing about Her is that it makes you think about the extend to which humans are willing or are going to integrate technology in their daily lives. I guess, it’s an undeniable fact that nowadays, we as a species have integrated almost every bit of technology into our lives and are empowered in ways we couldn’t have imagined. That been said, should there be a limit to the way we implement this or that technology into our lives? Is all technology good? Or there’s actually a point at which it becomes too intrusive? I mean, the idea of relying on machines in order to achieve a better life is awesome, but should we go as far as falling in love with them? I personally haven’t answered this question yet. I can distinctly remember my friend telling me that this route of technology that humanity has chosen to be it’s own after the Industrial Revolution and everything, seems to be abnormal. Abnormal in the sense that if we pay attention to old scriptures, it seems that humans had to go towards the path of spiritual enlightenment and so on. But here we are in the advent of virtual reality, discovery of alternative sources of energy and much more yet again we still feel that there is something weird about all this tech invading our lives. Something seems very unnatural about it, it seems that we are losing our soul in order to get or achieve ephemeral satisfaction and happiness. So, if you guys are into watching an unconventional love story which resonates with the unconventional world we leave in, Her is exactly what you're looking for.