"her"

I really liked "Her" (Jonze, 2013), starring Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, and the voice of Scarlett Johannson, with an outstanding supporting cast. And whilst watching this movie in the theater, at one point, I'm pretty sure, I also fell asleep to the sound of Theodore Twombly's melancholic timbre. Falling asleep at the movies is not something I normally do. Lulled by the sound of Phoenix's voice as the sensitive, yet self-absorbed Twombly, a character awakening to his own vulnerability, it is not too difficult to understand how this could happen. 

The script, and the actors' portrayals, reflected an experience

I seemed to be having, that of being on a date with myself. Hyper-awareness of one's own fragility, and a manufactured sense of intimacy, characterize the mood of "Her" and there is something weirdly therapeutic about that.

This story of a writer who falls in love with his new computer operating system, is billed as a science fiction movie. Yet, "Her" illustrates the alienation from social intimacy that seems to pervade our urban-modern, computer-dependent-life. This is a world, urban, well- educated, and creative, where professionals skim past the problems of economic downturn, climate change, and creeping inequality. 

Computer technology fills the void. Although children appear on screen, I do not recall the presence of any therapy pets. Workers float throughout a tangerine-hued people-scape that one can imagine is airated with SSRIs.

What is going on depends on the interpretation of the word, relationship. How dependent we are on listening to the voices of those human and cyber others.

My only criticism of "Her" is that the world rendered on-screen seems too devoid of diversity to be considered sci-fi.