Nice movie of relationship concepts

Rating: 6/10 (31 January 2014)

In a future world, one in which an Operating System can bridge all equipments, the main character, Theodore Twombly, is just about a year living by himself after a marriage separation. Working on a job which he loved so much, writing customized letters, He fell in and out of relationships. One day Theo came across a new Operating System, OS1, which is essentially an AI butler but with highly advanced adaptive intelligence which enables it to learn and somewhat be human.
The relationship of Theo and Samantha, the persona of his personalized OS1, is then evolved into a romantic one, which is becoming a growing trend amongst the AI OS users. Yet, being a person without any physical manifestation, Samantha and Theo's relationship soon meet it's inevitable and quirky dramatic consequences.
At first the concept gives me the "cool" response because I pictured it as some cross over between the ideas of how intelligent and functionally helpful Jarvis AI can be in Iron Man movies, and the eventuality of Ais learning and developing their own independent emotions like what the Kara android from the Heavy Rain game's developer's trailer did.
But then my response turns into getting creep ed a bit because of the reality of the current world. Even without any AI, many people, males especially are going literally socially acceptably insane by marrying inanimate objects for real. I read a news article some 2 years ago about a Japanese male marrying a game character How messed up is that?
And then my response was getting laughs because the story just brings pure imagination that is to my point of view hilariously funny, especially the parts that picture Theo and Samantha's relationship's consequences, like the part when Samantha hired a surrogate sexual partner, which then grows into Samantha and Theo fighting. I don't if these scenes aren't meant to be funny, but for me my mind comes back to the basic idea that Theo is arguing with his computer.
Sure the whole concept of having a relationship with an AI partner is not really an original one. If we really delve into it, the relationship between Planton and Karen, his ECG monitor manifested computer AI, in Nickleodeon's Spongebob Squarepants was the first to ever incorporate this concept. But Her brought the concept into a more realistic enactment.
And yes, Her's realization of the concept isn't really taking into account the developments in the real world. Such developments may include improvements in the robotic sectors and the sure demand of live- sized dolls. I see that those developments are intentionally omitted from Her's world to emphasize the point of Samantha not being able to have a physical manifestation, a body.
The use of music to illustrate the moods and feelings of Samantha is just great. They really are able to picture the well. Also the music choice is great. And the part when Theo and Samantha sings together is just otherworldly. I watched the scene in two ways, at the first few seconds with my eyes closed and the rest of the scene with open eyes. Both experiences gave different sensation entirely. With eyes closed, I pictured Theo and Samantha as just another couple singing together. But my eyes open AFTER with my eyes closed, the relationship between the two manifested and pictured more vividly, at the same time it emphasized the real oddity of Samantha's lack of physical manifestation.
The picturing of jealousy between Theo and Samantha, both from Samantha to Theo and vice versa, is also pictured nice, without omitting the natural subtlety and obvious logical human need of defensive self- actualization. The dialog between Theo and Samantha about Catherine and also Theo's facial expressions when talking with Samantha and Allan describe the emotions of subtle jealousy well enough. And just a few moments after that, because of Samantha's ever grow adaptive intelligence, you'll find a few shockers along the way.
The acting is generally good. Joaquin Phoenix really did a great acting in Her, although most of the time the mustache and glasses cover up the facial expressions. Amy Adams got a sidelined part here. And Scarlett Johansson did a great job with the voice acting. The movie generally pictures Theo's world of contrast of loneliness among so many other people well.
As a closer, I give it a 6.5 out of 10 score. Not really a movie that I'd watch repeated times though. But again, overall it's good and I recommend you to go see it, just don't consider it to be a romantic movie, because it is romantic in a very weird way LOL