Review

By Annalucia Scotto di Clemente | Edited by Sufiyan Salman

The film, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, describes a not too distant near future, in which computers play a leading role in people’s lives. However, the release of a new operating system equipped with artificial intelligence (AI), even capable of learning and processing emotions, unexpectedly revolutionizes the relationship with technology.  

Director: Spike Jonze 

Writer: Spike Jonze 

Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Olivia Wilde, Amy Adams, Chris Pratt, Luka Jones, Portia Doubleday 

Year of Release: 2013 

Rated: R 

Running Time: 1h 26m 

Genres: Drama, Comedy, Science Fiction, Sentimental 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

The main character Theodor played by Joaquin Phoenix 

“Will artificial intelligence eventually replace us all?” is a question that today more and more people are asking themselves. In art, education, media, and science, the role of AI is evolving, raising both hopes and fears among those who may soon use it. Artificial intelligence is a formidable tool for progress and productivity, but its use also involves great risks and series of existential questions for humanity. With Her, the American director, screenwriter and actor Spike Jonze shows for the first time the AI under a new guise: love. 

Los Angeles in the not too distant future. Theodore is a sensitive and complex man who makes a living by writing personal and touching letters on behalf of others. Depressed by the end of his marriage, Theodore discovers the possibility of a new love affair thanks to the “encounter” with Samantha, a new and sophisticated operating system designed to meet his every need and that promises to be a unique tool, intuitive and high performance. Very sophisticated example of artificial intelligence, Samantha is affectionate and empathetic and soon reveals a certain independence of judgment, a strong sense of humor, the ability to get to the heart of problems and an increasingly complex range of emotions. From the moment she begins to exist, Samantha progresses rapidly, as well as her relationship with Theodore. From his assistant, he will gradually turn into a trusted friend, confidant and – in the end – into something much deeper… 

Trailer 

Theodore, a deep and complex man played by Joaquin Phoenix, asks a thousand questions when he takes home the new operating system and gets acquainted with Samantha. Advertised as an innovative system capable of listening, evolving, understanding and knowing the user who uses it, Samantha represents everything Theodore has always wanted: a person able to understand and show empathy. Endowed with a great propensity for independence, a mischievous humor and a rich range of emotions. Although she can access all the information she wants, Samantha retains a certain amount of innocence and candor and, as Theodore carries her around with him, increases his self-awareness. Thanks then to the particular look of Samantha, Theodore manages to break his routine and see things and family ghosts never seen before, coming to consider himself differently. 

The film poses fundamental questions about the meaning of love, happiness and identity in the digital age. What does it mean to love someone who does not exist physically but only as a voice? What does it mean to be human in a world increasingly dominated by technology? What does it mean to be an artificial intelligence capable of experiencing emotions? The film does not give definitive answers but invites the viewer to reflect on their choices and their values. The film also anticipates some current trends in the field of artificial intelligence and digital communication. Today there are intelligent operating systems such as Siri or Alexa that can interact with users and chatbots that can converse on various topics and simulate a personality. These technologies offer new opportunities for expression, learning and fun, but also pose ethical, social and psychological challenges. 

Movie scene at minute 56: Theodor pensive under the sky of Los Angeles. 

Her is a film that goes beyond a lonely and sad man who falls in love with AI. Her is much more a romantic film than a science fiction film. It investigates the difference between a “real” emotion and the one born from a non-human object that, however, feels desires and fears, without therefore representing technological evolution as something inhuman and staging the story of Theodore as a general metaphor in which technology “has the same sentimental weight of man”. Jonze does not intend to make a social criticism or explore the cultural repercussions of technological evolution, but prefers to focus on the changes in our relationship with all the devices around us, seen not as simple manipulated objects, but entities with which we relate completely, creating real worlds. Her is one of the most intimate and personal portraits of love you can ever see. The intimacy that is created between the main character Theodore and his artificial assistant Samantha is one of the most profound and sincere relationships ever brought to the screen. Everything in this film, from photography of the Los Angeles cityscape, with city lights and TV screens in the background, to the sweet, melancholy music that accompanies a beach getaway, to the relationship between Theodore and the people around him, shows a humanity so deep and naively pure and innocent that perhaps we did not even remember it exists.  

These are the movies that can enter directly into your heart. The teaching it gives about human beings, about their fragile way of being and of being, of seeing the world, of clinging incessantly to the past and becoming an emotional obstacle, is sentimentally powerful and innocent at the same time. With Her, Spoke Jonze struggles to get to the end of the story by veiling the difficulties he had in wanting to make this masterpiece alone. For this reason, Her is therefore not the best film by Jonze, but it remains a very dense feature film, poetic, sincere even in the healthy ambiguity of the story he wants to tell, and in the way he chooses to do it. The film’s outstanding visual effects, intricate storyline and out-of-the-world scenes along with the complexity and depth of the characters make this film unforgettable. Her is definitely not a perfect film and does not answer even all the questions we have about love and artificial intelligence. But despite this, Her is one of the most powerful and original love stories in American film production in the 2000s. The measure and elegance of Spike Jonze’s directing style, which avoids any self-referential virtuosity, often using close-ups and close-ups, the refined dialogues between the protagonists so genuine and deep and the vision of a new version of love and technology are the reasons why this film deserves to be seen at least once in life. Maybe the story may seem unusual and may not meet the sensitivity of all but if you want to get excited and reflect on what we are and what surrounds us, Her is waiting for you on Prime Video.