Review of the spike jonze’s movie "her”

Spike Jonze directed ‘ Her’, a movie about a guy named Theodore Twombly who is described as antisocial who makes his living out of writing personal letters. He writes for living because it is where he is able to express his deeply emotions towards those relationships who have fared better than his own. After his breakup he tries to find ways to distract himself. He comes across an OS update and becomes intrigued with an operating system, Samantha, who has a bright female voice and is sensitive towards actions. She is insightful and has similar characteristics that a human would have. As her needs and desires grow, their friendship deepens into an eventual love for each other. This love story demonstrates a risky intimacy between technology in modern world. The engaging plot, absorbs the attention of individuals at an intellectual level by having a representation of visuals and background music capturing anxieties of an era which spend more time in electronics rather than scrutinizing each other’s eyes. Even though there is some lack of realism, much like today characters deal with unity and detachment in a society.

To engage with the viewers the director uses mise-en-scene to understand Theodore world. For example, the use of color and tones is used significantly. Jonze uses the color red on Theodore while the others in the background are wearing neutral colors. The color red appears on important scenes of love and passion. For example, the color of the couch that Catherine, ex-wife, and him shared. Moreover he wears red throughout the movie until the end. Giving the last scene significance by providing a iconography on the colors red and white demonstrating the framing of Theodore.

The filter throughout the movie is dark, deem, and smog layering with the exception of his bright clothes. The last scene becomes he decides to writes a letter to Catherine he expressing how much he misses her and wishes he had the chance to change time truly reflects his personality. In that scene he is remembering his ex-wife who is wearing red presenting the infinite love he had for her. As he writes he has a regretful voice saying “ I’m sitting here about all the things I’ve been wanting to apologize for. All the pain we caused each other” demonstrates how much love has affected his life and how it is a difficult transition for him. In the flashback Catherine wears red and Theodore begins to wear white indicating a new beginning. Also the value of a non-romantic relationship and more of discovering himself in order to love again, because at the end of the film he becomes a published author. A dream he always had. At that moment, we see him truly let go of Catherine and Samantha since he is accompanied by friends and presentation of the color white.

Furthermore the movie Her captures the anxiety of many individuals as technology increases. This movie was made in 2013 which is modernly recent, yet not as advanced as we have it today. In Longing to Connect: Cinema’s Year of OS romance claims that Jonze describes Her as set in the “ slight future , a heightened version of the world we live in right now” meaning that technology has become the anxiety of many people since we are living in the era of technology. These anxieties are constructed because we are using it in our everyday life as we notice that Siri has similar construct from the operating system it is not hard to imagine the future where custom designed Siris will probably develop attractions and sentiments to their assigned users. Jeff Scheible reasons these anxieties explaining that the movie was made in 2013, at the time technology was developing so they used it as a hyperbole to let the audience know what could happen if they become so detached from society. The movie has various scenes where it indicated loneliness. However, Victor Margolin in There is No There analyzed the human dynamics that are often embodied on machines like when a computer has a virus they are “ sick.” He extends his assumptions of the movie being an exaggeration since for him it is not logical to fall in love with a machine and have fellow humans accepted it.

The director also uses a two-shot placing both lovers in the same frame. He does it so consistently that we begin to assume that the characters will appear in every shot. However, it becomes surprising once a character does not appear it almost seems as something went wrong. Because the operating system does not have a body it can’t occupy the same frame, but just her voice allows Jonze to use jumps cuts and slow zoom-ins to allow the audience to see his expressions as she talks. This allows the audience to understand more about their connection. Like in the journal Gifts of Ubiquity explains the images that fades into a long shot of a near future version of Los Angeles at night. James Hodge explains that the camera drifts steadily from an indeterminate point up in the air observing the depiction of the city in black and lights. This shot allows a more soft focus of reality by having landscape shots represent something more appropriate to the 21st century’s diffuse and atmospheric media.

According to Jeremy Bile, philosophy and religion professor, the movie could be seen a little too pleased with itself, by communicating superiority. His critique explains that the movie has lack of realism. He explains that falling in love with an operating system in seconds is strange. Adam Clark Estes philosopher, agrees with him and explains further that this operating system is too smart to be at the same level as Siri. He argues that Siri can be easy to talk in order to ask for contacts, directions or documents on any apple product. Although to have a real conversation, could not be possible since Theodore operating system Samantha, goes beyond expectations and is both sentiment and sexual. On the other hand critics have attacked Her because they present a sexist fantasy of a man and woman to satisfy their presence. Theodore dreams of having a partner who will love him. Samantha wants a relationship that will make her feel like a woman. She tells him in an early scene, as he strolls outdoors with her transmitted through his earbud, that she sometimes dreams of walking next to him in a human body. Such conversations continue until one night when, after Theodore comes home from an upsetting blind date, he and Samantha make love. They do it – as they do everything – through.

Overall, I recommend this movie because it envisions today’s era since everyone is almost permanently plugged into their electronic devices. Of course, the director gave the audience many hilarious, serious, and sad moments that reflect on the purpose of life. He also made every scene to be well thought out that it had a meaning behind every action and camera angle. This movie reflections on the future allowing the viewers to note that the disconnect between people in our modern society is serious. Beyond technology, the director also wants the audience to understand that the purpose of life is not seeking for love, but accomplish happiness to what we are really lived to do. Like Theodore, we trap ourselves with the idea of being perfect we forget about other aspects of life like discovering ourselves. The film is a love story, but raises questions about society and makes us reflect our own actions.