Her

Rating : 8/10
Release Date : 14th February, 2014
Time : 126 minutes
Director, Writer : Spike Jonze; Music : Arcade Fire
Starring : Joaquin Phoenix, (Voice of) Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams, Olivia Wilde, Rooney Mara, Matt Letscher, Chris Pratt



He, a loner, still struggling to come to terms with the impending divorce from his childhood sweetheart (Rooney Mara). As a sign of changing times, he has a job as a letter writer for BeautifulHandWrittenLetters.com, where he writes letters for other people on various occasions (birthdays, graduation etc). He, on a whim, decides to buy a brand new operating system, which promises to be cutting edge, interactive, intuitive like never before. Which can view the world through his mobile phone camera. Talk to him like a person (voice of Scarlett Johansson) through an earphone, understand his needs, likes, dislikes. And then, he proceeds to fall in love with it !

The amazing part of how beautifully the movie is constructed is that at no stage do you feel this is a leap too far…everything is built up nicely, there is a logical progression. You see the friendship developing, the incredible things that the system is able to do, you can sense his loneliness, his lack of confidence after the failure of the biggest relationship of his life. And you feel for him, you want him to be happy – he is alone but not a creep, he has diffident manners but his letters display a sentimental heart. He has friends – Chris Pratt at his workplace, Amy Adams in his apartment block – but no one really close. He even tries to date (a gorgeous, available Olivia Wilde) but is too caught up in his past at that stage to be able to go further. And there is the operating system, which is evolving at every step of the way…figuring him and itself out, going far beyond what its programmers would’ve dreamt of.

Joaquin is so believable in his role, its uncanny. His look, demeanour, body language, eyes all conveying an overwhelming underconfidence, the life of a loner. Who changes, bit by little bit, as his relationship develops. And Scarlett’s voice is so husky, throaty, sensuous, she makes even a ‘Can I send your emails?’ sound unbelievably sexy. She gets her voice modulation bang on - especially as she begins to have doubts of her own, interacts with other people, takes over Joaquin’s life.

It was quite an experience sitting through this one. Its slow but insidious in several ways, getting inside your head and refusing to leave. And it definitely makes you relook at your computer, your operating system differently – you wish for certain technological advancements to arrive quite quickly here !