If I could give more than 10 points, I would . . .

Rating: 10/10 (14 January 2014)

Rarely do I offer 10 points for anything, but in this case, if I could give more than 10 points, I would.
Where to even start . . .
This is such an interesting story, on so many levels. Yes, it's sci-fi, but not exactly. Yes, it's a love story, but not exactly. What strikes me about this entire production is that this is not an easy story to convey, or even begin to translate into a film.
This could have gone very badly, if mishandled via someone else's treatment. But in this case, Spike Jonze nails it, absolutely.
Joaquin Phoenix is an excellent actor, but this may be his best work yet. That's just my opinion, of course, but playing the central character Theodore would be a challenge for anyone . . . and yet he pulls it off amazingly well.
My only contrary thought here is that Scarlett Johansson's voice as the AI cyber entity operating system was a bit hard to take at times, seemed a bit grating on the ear. I might have selected a somewhat less raspy characterization, but there is no such thing as ultimate perfection.
And that's what this film says in its message.
There are so many subtle details woven into this story . . . but the overview of synthetic sentience, emotional cognition engines becoming a commodity "product", even to the point of human surrogates becoming the representation of the virtual entities interactions, these conceptual models are not that far out into the future.
As an aside, there are already next gen emotional intelligence AI engines being developed and brought into the market. For better or worse, this future history is already unfolding into the present.
What this film does is deliver the audience into this not too distant future, at least a potential variation thereof.
This is a thinking and feeling person's film. If you're looking for the usual big bang, special effects extravaganza, don't bother, you won't find it here.
On the other hand, if you're willing to take a journey into what the social consequences of immersion into the ubiquitous data grid might look like, through the lens of emotional cognition extruded through this mandrel, this is probably the best example of filmcraft ever produced that can deliver this experience.
10+ stars? In a heartbeat!