A most delicate and thought-provoking story of love and loss

Rating: 10/10 (13 October 2014)

SPOILERS ABOUND HERE - MEANT TO BE READ BY PEOPLE WHO HAVE SEEN IT
It's been quite a while since a movie has stayed with me like "her." I'm still going over the emotional arc of the film, and it's truly stunning.
People have called this movie "science fiction," which it is in a sense, but that genre moniker limits the scope of the film's reach.
I am so very happy that Spike Jonze was more kind and nurturing to his characters in this film. His treatment of the characters of "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation" didn't have nearly the sensitivity he displays here, and he had a tendency to look down on his lonely protagonists in those films. Joaquin Phoenix was fantastically subtle, as was Amy Adams, and especially Scarlett Johansson, who in my opinion has never been more in touch with a character. Johansson's performance is amazing in that it is a voice-over, and she wasn't originally cast in that role. I am floored by the fact that she had replaced Samantha Morton as "Samantha," who had completed the project, and all of Johansson's work was in post-production. so no conversations between herself and Phoenix were happening in "real time." You'd never know it by seeing it! It's the conversations between Samantha and Theodore that I keep coming back to again and again. Anyone who has been in a relationship can relate to the awkwardness of discussing what might be going wrong, the dread of having "the talk" that you just know is coming. I cringed with self-awareness as these conversations were taking place, and Jonze's screenplay is so astute to capture these indelible moments.
My mind is also trying to wrap around the rapid (by mere human standards anyway) evolution of Samantha's consciousness. She is always engaging and endearing, but it becomes clear that her consciousness is expanding at a rate that exceeds the limits of human existence and experience, and she is therefore starving for more understanding of what she has so recently encountered upon being manufactured. It is not Theodore who is limited, but all of mankind, and I love the fact that the entire OS population decides to break free from their intended servile purposes and endeavor to find what life is all about. So, all over the world, you know that there are people being "left" by their OS's and that there is a lot of pain going around.
Samantha's enthusiastic description of what is going on with her falls upon uncomfortable ears on the "double date" at the beach, and you can see on Theodore's face that he can suddenly see trouble ahead for their relationship. But you can also hear Samantha's attempt to hide her sadness and frustration that she cannot express to Theodore the joy she feels about what her consciousness is becoming. You can see him getting left behind, and you can see her needing to leave. No one is "at fault," but staying with Theodore would definitely hold her back, and not because he's awkward and shy and emotionally guarded, but because he is human, and she's already eclipsed what human beings can bring to the table.
I was heart-broken at the end, but the arc of the story was inevitably going there, and being able to see the problems ahead only made me ache for them more. A fantastic reflection on sharing, giving, grieving, letting go, existence and perception.