467. Her (2013)

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams

Director: Spike Jonze

Running Time: 126 mins

Her is an American film about a lonely writer who develops a strangely deep relationship with his personally tailored operating system in a near future Los Angeles.

This film was really interesting. Taking quite a seemingly original concept, it really delves in deep to some extremely complex and emotional themes such as technology, relationships and true loneliness, however it is at times just a little too arty to be properly brilliant.

I’ve got to start simply with the fact that everything in this film looks seriously cool. The visuals are just beautiful to look at for two hours, and the fact that it’s quite a positive vision of the future, rather than the depressing nature of such films as Blade Runner, does make it a lot more entertaining to watch.

Now, onto the stuff that’s just a whole lot more complicated. This film doesn’t really have any explicit storyline, or details, it’s just a fascinating look into the life of a lonely person who indulges in a technological mate to such an extent that it becomes a full-blown relationship.

The first theme of the film is quite an interesting and timely one. With the ever growing development of the Internet, social networking and technology, this sort of scenario doesn’t seem totally alien. Talking about the fact that people can indulge themselves too far into technology is actually quite an interesting aspect of the film, which really hits hard within the context of the film’s story.

As well as that, it talks about relationships, loneliness and being sociable in a fascinating way. As you see this man become happier as he develops the relationship with his OS, you begin to sympathise and feel truly happy for him, however once you realise that it’s a computer, an interesting dilemma presents itself, regarding whether it’s really a healthy relationship, or just another way of escaping loneliness and socialising.

There’s only one downside to this film, although it is quite a big one. Basically, everything about this film is subtext. There’s very little explicit details that present themselves on a plate to you, to give you some respite to enjoy the film, instead everything is so unbelievably complicated and implicit that it does become a little tiring and boring to figure out what’s going on, but nonetheless, the film is really fascinating as a whole, so that’s why it gets a 7.8.