Her

Rating: 9.0

Film critic James Berardinelli described Her as “iRomance” and I agree. There’s something about the look of the movie that reminds me of the iPhone interface, in a good way. The movie is gorgeous to look at, painting the near future with light pink and light blue hazes. The first thing that captured me about Her is how lightly colorful it is, using soft and sun basked lighting to achieve a lush transcendental quality about it.

As for the romance itself, Her is complicated in its appeal. The relationship between Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) and the operating system Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) is ambitious and challenging. If you don’t buy into their relationship, the movie will not work for you. There are times that the romance is beautiful and genuinely touching. There are also scenes where the romance didn’t work for me, but this may have been intentional. Samantha is a tricky character. I found myself switching gears between being happy for Theodore and being sad for him for falling in love with a technological advancement.

Ultimately, Her is a thoughtful and innovative film about romance and technology. The fact that I feel I need to watch it again is a compliment about its genius. It’s a film that seduces you in its ideas. A beautiful looking and intellectually stimulating movie.