Connected to Technology and Disconnected from the Human Race

Rating: 8/10 (25 May 2014)

If you haven't seen it, you might enjoy it - then again, you might not. It's a movie about the human need to connect.
Set a few decades ahead of 2014, HER is about a society that is in touch with technology. If you think it's bad now with everyone's telephone in their face, you've seen nothing yet. Society is technology hyped, though I can't say that the fashions have evolved much in the movie.
Basically, it's about a man going through a divorce, who is lonely and broken. His dating endeavors have not been going well. Theodore finds it hard to connect and open up to anyone - even his former wife. However, when he's given the opportunity to buy the latest technology - an OS (operating system) - his life changes.
Just think about it. A perfectly programmed mate for your life made just for you. You can choose a male or female voice. The system grows, adapts and learns everything about you. And while doing so, it evolves to discover what it means to be human by getting in touch with its own electronic "feelings" if you will.
Theodore finds Samantha (his OS) easy to talk to. They go places together. He walks, she's in his shirt pocket. They explore the world, talk, keep each other company, and have make believe sex. She tells him that she is in love, and Theodore has fallen in love with HER.
Well, it's a complex relationship. At one point he almost walks away because of the absurdity of it all. It's obvious he has trouble with human relationships, so should he pursue the electronic ones instead? After a brief struggle, he throws all caution to the wind. However, even like real relationships, it ends in heartbreak after he learns that Samantha is not a one-guy OS. In fact, she has over 8,000 other companions and declares love to over 600. Talk about fickle! Of course, the news devastates Theodore, and in the end, the OS's evolve and abandon humans for their own kind (or at least that's what I got out of it).
It's a strange movie, but it is filled with the honesty of struggling to be a single and sole individual who has a deep need to connect. If one can't connect humanly, then companionship can be found electronically. However, I strongly believe that our society is becoming disconnected because of technology. Our phones are in our faces, along with computers, iPads, Kindles, and every other device that we use to get lost in, so we can depart from the human race. Rather than giving us a stronger society, it is giving us a society that connects through electricity, but cannot connect humanly.
If you're single, I think you would enjoy and relate. Joaquin Phoenix is brilliant. Absolutely brilliant and heartfelt through the entire movie. He's a man who wants to be loved and accepted. And if that love comes from an operating system named Samantha that understands him more than any other thing on this earth, then so be it.
That is HER. Now, if I could only have a HIM with a voice like Jeremy Northam, I'd die a happy woman with my OS next to me in bed.