You might first think that Her is high concept film, given the rather curious premise of a man falling in love with a synthetic consciousness. Sounds like an indulgent essay on the terrors of our evolving relationship with technology right? And it can be enjoyed in this vein, but there’s more to its beauty. For myself at least, what made its socially-conscious narrative unpretentious is the subtle melancholic alarm that is bound up in Jonze’s aesthetic and characters. There can be so much said for the details in this film, from production and costume design to Joaquin Phoenix’s precise performance that he gives his whole body to. Together with cinematographer, Hoyte van Hoytema, a very precise creation of a weirdly innocuous and absurd world is achieved.
In many ways, I find the character of Theodore Twonbly delightfully innocent and doleful. But there's something not quite right about him. From the outset, it seems as if Theodore’s emotions are something of a farce. The film opens with him reading a love letter and it appears as if it is for someone he is deeply in love with but he has in fact written it for another couple. Theodore is also going through a difficult break up due to his troubles with, as his wife says, “handling emotions” and has been alone for a year. So, it becomes hard to know if we should empathise with this character or not.
It is obvious that Theodore has become somewhat detached and perfunctory but can we blame him when everyone around him is also in their own bubble, it’s just how the world is now. Perhaps, the film is a space that gives us room to contemplate that.
We know that he is at least trying to reconnect when he gives in and goes on a blind date with an impressive Harvard graduate. This ends in failure though when he realises she is not quite perfect; she doesn't like his aggressive kissing and is upfront about looking for something serious. Again, Theodore is unable to face real emotional challenges when technology can give him everything he could ever need. Quite accurately, this woman describes Theodore as a puppy dog. He just wants to be loved and told how wonderful he is. Enter Scarlett Johansson.
Scarlett Johansson plays Samantha, the intuitive entity that understands you and knows exactly how to respond to anything you say. She’s witty, charming and even tells Theodore how to get to the next level on his game. And so they fall in love. But what’s so baffling is that Theodore is so effortlessly able to ignore the fact that she is artificial. I believe Jonze’s intention here is to get his audience to confront the authenticity of their own emotions.
Watching this relationship play out may make us cringe, especially when they have ‘sex’, but is there a part of us that maybe has already embarked upon this slow transition from connecting with people to connecting to devices. And do we think that there is anything wrong with this or not? I am not sure if the film gives any kind of answer to this but it certainly provides an experience where we can imagine what its like to get everything we theoretically want from a relationship so we can ask ourselves if that's really what we want.
But as I said, there is more to this film than its narrative. The cinematography is mesmerising. A lot of the feeling of this film comes from the production and lighting- a sort of pastel version of a Mondrian painting with the kind of high exposure you only experience in Apple stores. The fashion sense of the future is dowdy and the smog of the city looms over endless rows of skyscrapers and pedestrian bridges. It all a bit kitsch- perhaps to emphasise the awkwardness we feel about the artificial relationship.
The camera pans and wobbles as if atop a calm lake, never losing its narcissistic grip on Theodore who always has his hands in his pockets. A lot would probably say that the film is a bit overly conscious of itself. But this is the future world Jonze intends to create; a world of wandering melancholic narcissists. A.I. Samantha is nothing but a customised reflection of himself and so, in very narcissistic fashion, he literally falls in love with himself.
Evoking the uncanny is precisely Jonze's genius in all his films, and in Her he does it by welding together both the relatability of modern anxieties and an ludicrous version of the future, which is actually maybe not too far from conceivable.
But there are multiple kinds of audiences for this film I think. In some ways the film is just about the nature of love and relationships. It is a kind of 2-hour long therapy session for Theordore and any viewer who wants to explore their own longing for love and connection. And it’s also about the anxiety around evolving technology. It’s up to the viewer to choose which part to focus on. For me, I enjoy the impressionism of this distinctive world’s absurdity and melancholy that is in some ways ineffably familiar.