Dare

Rating: 10/10 (24 May 2014)

Spike Jone's 'Her' is probably my favorite movie to be released last year and the best I've watched this year aside from 'Detachement'.
Finally a film to really dare to breach the gap of right and wrong and enter the murky waters of the reality that love does not solely belong to a man and a women or not attached to a physical body of another. Recent years have come to accept the more abstract circles and attachments of 'love' and 'desire' towards people that never existed. We have come to a synthetic age where we are captivated by anime and feeling drawn to strangers over the internet who may not be who they say they are.
'Her'raises the idea, is it right to love and become so intimate with someone that isn't really there? But Jones already has the conclusion from the get go. 'It doesn't even matter when we are in love.' This is the golden rule and I love how this is capitalized in 'Her'
'Her' follows Theodore(Phoenix) a closed off, introverted writer who's job is to write letters concerning touchy matters to others for them. In the near future of our modern time, Theodre is living a dismal life in the wake of his divorce with old flame Cathrine(Mara)where his only apparent friends are his work colleagues and Amy(Adems) who lives just down the hall. Fate would have it soon that by chance, Theodore passes an add for the newest artificial intelligence program, captivated by it, he takes a chance and boots it up to his computer by following some basic psych questions, typically centered around his mother.. soon Smantha,husky Johansson, 's comes through and we, the viewer are on the best third wheel time of our lives as we bask in the love and companionship between one man and the voice he falls in love with.
'Her' follows a predictable but in no way shape or form, boring story arc between the love, laugh and struggles of Theodore and Samantha, his operating system best friend and lover. The fantastic thing about this movie is that if you allow yourself to believe it, which would be easy, is that Jones's well scripted and shot film, reinforced with driving force by Phoenix and Johansson, breaks the fourth wall without even addressing the viewer as we are just come to appreciate the times that these two share. Their relationship feels so organic and so rich that the viewer would feel jealous it is so riveting to watch but as all relationships, they have struggles and once again, the film never drops the ball as the occurrences feel like something so natural, I did not at once feel like it was unbelievable and was in the realm that Jonze placed it in.
Brilliant stuff. 10/10