With eccentric and provoking films such as Where the Wild Things Are and Being John Malkovich under his belt, not to mention the ingenious and hysterical music video for Fatboy Slim’s Praise You, a romantic comedy by Spike Jonze is not going to be a cookie cutter 120 minutes.  Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore, a lonely romantic who falls in love with his Operating System (OS) called Samantha, voiced by the sultry Scarlett Johansson.

As with any Jonze film, the attention to detail and the atmospherics are highly aesthetic and cohesive.  The setting is a futuristic California however the people are dressed in a vintage, geeky fashion, with a palette of subtle hues.  There are no brand names or images that clash with the overall ethos, and so it is easy to believe in the delightfully artsy Jonzian urban world. 

There are decidedly modern, technological aspects of the film, such as Theodore’s job of dictating letters to his computer which are subsequently printed out in believable handwriting and sent to friends and loved ones of the client.  At one point Theodore remarks to Samantha that he has been sending letters on behalf of a couple to their son for over ten years.  Theodore also installs Samantha, the OS, to chat to and sort out his schedule. 

She becomes the antidote to his pain and loneliness after the separation and looming divorce from his wife.  The flashbacks to moments of happiness in his relationship with Catherine (Rooney Mara) are dotted through the first half of the film, adding to the already introspective Theodore.  Catherine is the only character that judges and criticises Theodore for his close, romantic relationship with his OS, although up until that point the bizarreness of the situation seems hardly relevant.  Jonze creates a more or less entirely believable love story between the two, testament to Phoenix’s highly expressive form of acting and the filming of minute, poignant gestures, but also to Johansson’s breathy naturalness. 

The boundary between the real world of humans and the artificial world is rendered blurry by Jonze.  This is reminiscent of Ridley Scott’s cult classic Blade Runner where Decker (Harrison Ford) empathises and falls in love with a ‘Replicant’ (a human clone) whose memories and identity are entirely constructed.  However, in contrast to Scott’s sinister film noir, Her is a light, breezy romance that becomes more telling of intrahuman relationships rather than the interrelationship between humans and artificial intelligence.

Her is a modern tale of love that touches on subtle home truths, all presented in a beautifully futuristic world that seems to depict life through a perpetual Instagram filter.  It is impressive to see a film that succeeds in combining high aesthetics and art with true emotions and reality.