Her

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***Her*** is a 2013 American science-fiction romantic drama film written, directed, and produced by Spike Jonze. It marks Jonze's solo screenwriting debut. The film follows Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a man who develops a relationship with Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), an artificially intelligent virtual assistant personified through a female voice. The film also stars Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, and Olivia Wilde. The film premiered at the 2013 New York Film Festival on October 12, 2013. Warner Bros. Pictures initially provided a limited release for Her at six theaters on December 18. It was later given a wide release at over 1,700 theaters in the United States and Canada on January 10, 2014.

## Plot

A sensitive and soulful man earns a living by writing personal letters for other people. Left heartbroken after his marriage ends, Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) becomes fascinated with a new operating system that reportedly develops into an intuitive and unique entity in its own right. He starts the program and meets "Samantha" (Scarlett Johansson), whose bright voice reveals a sensitive, playful personality. Though "friends" initially, the relationship soon deepens into love.

## Why It Rocks

1. The film takes a twist on the science fiction genre and makes it into a romance film, but using a computer as one of the partners.
2. It features pretty advanced futuristic technology, especially with the company Theodore works with that writes letters on a computer for people and the use of the virtual assistant that he has.
3. Joaquin Phoenix's performance is downright wonderful.
	* Scarlett Johannson also gives off a great voice performance too as Samantha, the virtual assistant, with a ton of emotion into her voice.
4. The movie's screenplay is very unique and well written by Jonze, which ended up winning "Best Original Screenplay" at the Oscars.
5. Very funny moments, such as when Theodore asks the Alien Child in his holographic video game how to get back to his ship and the Alien Child swears back at him.
	* Even the drawings that Samantha draws are hilarious, such as the "Anal armpit sex" drawing.
6. The film really makes you feel for the characters, especially Theodore, due to his divorce.
7. The relationship between Theo and Samantha starts off slow, but gradually deepens into love, allowing for character development to happen.
8. Gorgeous cinematography that really shows how beautiful Los Angeles can be.
9. A well-composed score composed by Arcade Fire that fits greatly with the movie. It's also mentioned that Samantha composes some of the music.
10. The iconic scene where Theodore and Samantha have phone sex.
11. There is a lot of scenes that inspired *Lost in Translation*.

## Bad Qualities

1. Its story may not be engaging to some.

## Reception

*Her* received widespread critical acclaim upon its release. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 94% based on 269 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Sweet, soulful, and smart, Spike Jonze's *Her* uses its just-barely-sci-fi scenario to impart wryly funny wisdom about the state of modern human relationships.". On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 90 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale.

## Trivia

* Initially, the soundtrack had not been released to the general public in either digital or physical form. A 13-track score appeared for streaming on the website 8tracks.com in January 2014, before being taken down. Warner Bros. Pictures, the film's distributor, provided no official statement on the absence of an official release of the score. Earlier in 2013, Warner Bros. sent promotional CDs of the score and "The Moon Song" to critics for review. Copies of the promotional CDs later ended up on online auction websites. The score was ultimately made available through unofficial YouTube streams and illegal downloads. During an "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) on Reddit on June 17, 2016, Will Butler mentioned the possibility of a future vinyl release. Finally, on February 10, 2021, Arcade Fire announced that the score would be available for the first time digitally, on white-colored vinyl, and on cassette on March 19, 2021, by Milan Records.

## External Links

* Template:IMDb
* Template:Rotten Tomatoes