C.T Recommended: Her (2013)

Directed by Spike Jonze

Starring Joaquin Phoenix

The story involves a man who develops a relationship with a computer operating system personified through a female voice.

The film is set in the not so future Los Angeles as it stars Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore, a lonely, depressed man who is heartbroken after his recent split and impending divorce with his childhood love Catherine. To deal with the heartbreak, Theodore purchases an OS with AI. Theodore, although was fascinated, he later started to develop feelings with the computer.

The film has a great cast, with also the tone being a great mix of humor and seriousness. The cinematography was done brilliantly by Hoyte van Hoytema. The movie had a deep meaning, a meaning and a symbol of the state of modern relationships. Phoenix’s performance was astounding as he displays the emotion to fight back from heartbreak and love something that isn’t even physical, Johansson was seductive, caring and manipulative.

The movie opens up the question of how we can love something that can’t understand human emotions? The entire movie is sweet and depressing, as we are in Theodore’s head from the beginning to the end, experiencing the heartbreak, his new-found love, and his sudden curiosity of love, relationships, and what it means to love something, even if it’s not physical, or human.

The film deals with the awareness of technology being "too smart", and its ability to learn and adapt as incredible and out of this world. This film is regarded as a sci-fi film comparing it’s likeliness to Spielberg’s A.I or Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. That similarity being it's fear, of losing control in technology, and what makes someone human. These questions are mostly asked also in the Blade Runner films.

A breath of fresh air in cinema, as Spike Jonze crafted a masterpiece that will stand the test in time as being one of the most innovative screenplays in all of cinema.

My rating: 9/10

#CTRecommended #2018