Her

The sheer ingenuity of the concept of someone falling in love with his Operating System should be enough to draw you to watch HER.  If that is not sufficient then I am hoping that by the end of this review, you will be compelled to at least consider a watch.  Because if you don’t catch up with the movie, you are missing some really great cinema.

The concept of HER is as simple as what the posters called it out to be.  Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) lives in a world that is somewhere in the future – no dates have been called out conspicuously.  It is in a time when China and India are about to merge to form a new nation – safe to assume that is a very distant one as well as a clearly fictional one.

Having gotten that premise out of the way, director Spike Jonze, goes on to introduce us to the launch of Operating System 1.  OS1 is an Artificial Intelligence.  As the advertisement says, “It’s not just an OS.  It is a consciousness”. She calls herself Samantha (Scarlett Johansson) after running through 180K names in 2/100^th of a second.  She grows through experience and evolves every minute.

Spike Jonze creates Samantha in the form of a dream girl to most men.  She is caring, not too sensitive, eager to have conversation, does what you want her to, understanding – basically everything you want.  To Theodore, who is recovering from a very tough divorce, Samantha is perfect.

Jonze proceeds to weave a beautiful story about how Theodore and Samantha actually fall in love with each other.  But what makes HER absolutely mind blowing is the manner in which Jonze explores almost all aspects of a relationship between man and woman – or should I say man and OS.

The evolution of Samantha in the spirit of Artificial Intelligence is simply superb.  Jonze sticks to the claim made early in the movie about growing through experience.  With each conversation, Samantha moves closer towards being human – in terms of emotion.  But the AI in her enables her to have multiple conversations – over a few thousand simultaneously.  How can Theodore cope with that?

Then there is a question of physical intimacy that Jonze handles brilliantly.  The first time Theodore and Samantha make love, the screen is just black and you can only hear voices. Could not have been done better.  Simply put, in my limited capability to think, I could not have thought of any more angles.

Joaquin Phoenix is perfect for the role of Theodore Twombly.  Apparently he was pulled out of retirement (not sure) for this role.  Amy Adams looks even more gorgeous without make up – adding to her acting prowess.  Her character – Amy – is one of the most intriguing in the entire plot.  Scarlett Johansson replaced Samantha Morton as the voice of Samantha.  I can only say that Johansson personified Samantha extremely well.

Spike Jonze has made 3 full length features including HER.  Being John Malkovich (1999) picked 3 nominations.  Adaptation (2002) picked 4 and won an award.  Her has 5 nominations.  In the spirit of simple progression, we may see 2 awards.  I am betting on Original Screenplay and Music. I can tell you though that the competition is going to be tough.  Truly deserved nomination for Best Picture.  8.5 on 10.  Definitely one of the best movies from 2013!!!

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4112492569/?ref_=tt_ov_vi