Later in the film, Samantha composes another song, “Photograph”, saying that she hopes the song will capture, like a photograph, that moment in their lives, of them together. The song she composes, “Song on the Beach”, sounds exactly what you’d think a song about a romantic day at the beach would sound like. Part-way through the movie, deep amidst Theodore’s relationship with Samantha, we see them (Samantha as an earbud in Theodore’s ear) on the beach as Samantha decides to compose a song that captures what it feels like to be on the beach with Theodore. As Theodore says to his smart phone: “Play melancholy song.”
#Her spike jonze movie#
The beauty of Her strikes you immediately from the moment you press “play.” The first sound we hear, “Milk & Honey” by Arcade Fire, plays before the movie even begins, when all we see are logos, and it serves as our first introduction to the tone and mood of what’s to come. Like Samantha tells Theodore, “The heart’s not like a box that gets filled up it expands in size the more you love.” The Sound You find yourself looking back at pre- Her you and how narrow your definition of love was, but being happy, post- Her, that your definition of love has expanded. It takes your preconceived notions of love, picks it up by its feet, and shakes it until its completely and utterly disoriented. How can a man fall in love with a operating system? How can an operating system fall in love with a man? These are the kind of presumptions you bring with you into the movie, but then shit happens and you find yourself rooting for Theodore and Samantha, and then you start to death-stare the characters in the film that look down upon their love, and before you know it, you forget that you weren’t that far off from those characters you now despise. What’s beautiful about Her is that, assuming you have an idea that the movie is a love story between a man and an operating system, you come into the movie with some presumptions and judgements. Said lonely man then quickly falls in love with that operating system (romantic love, not love in the Apple die-hard and MacOS kind of way), who names herself Samantha, and is played by Scarlett Johansson (who, interestingly, also played Lucy). Her is the story of Theodore, a lonely man played by Joaquin Phoenix, living in a world dominated by technology, until he purchases a fully-conscious, hyper-intelligent operating system (think Lucy in virtual form+feelings). One could watch Her and come away thinking the film is really a satire on our technology-dependent world, but I’d rather view that aspect of the film as an alternative reading and treat it as the love story I think it was intended to be. This results in a film that is truly, through and through, beautiful. The story is layered with a perfect soundtrack, courtesy of Arcade Fire, that adds to the atmosphere and it is shown through astounding visuals (thank you, Director of Photography, Hoyte Van Hoytema) that serve as the stage for our characters. But what makes Her so beautiful is not only the story, but also how it is delivered. It’s a beautiful movie about one the most beautiful thing in the universe: love. Where do I begin? Her (2013) is a beautiful movie. Hell, even with your cell phone it seems difficult sometimes.“Sometimes I think I’ve felt everything I’m ever gonna feel, and from here on out, I’m not gonna feel anything new, just lesser version of what I’ve already felt.” - Her (2013) There were moments you could even taste it, but it never really worked out. Kind of by inertia, in the past years you drifted towards a random job and still look for that connection. Later in life, everybody is connected to someone - or something. Everyone has it figured out, but you feel like living in a foreign country and long for a connection that seems non-existent. People are hanging out and having fun as bright lights throughout the city create a surreal neon atmosphere. Try and picture it your mind: it is the early 2000s and life is not what it seemed it would be. Even though there are ten years between their coming out - the first in 2003, the latter in 2013, it's difficult to find two movies that complete themselves like Sofia Coppola's and Spike Jonze's while still being able to individually cast honest looks on the same subject: loneliness. If we take a look at the plots of Lost in Translation and Her, two of the most celebrated movies in recent past, they may well seem to be telling the same story, just years apart.
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