Her – Analytical Essay

Kevin Smock

13 January 2014

     After years of music and skate videos, Spike Jonze finally plunged into the world of narrative film. With releases like Being John Malkovich and Where The Wild Things Are, he certainly managed to get his foot in the door. His current release is the first movie that he has solely written and directed. Her is a film about transcending from reclusive tendencies into a lifestyle of companionship; it is a film not of the physical senses, but of pure emotional ones. It must be viewed in a connotative fashion though. We must not see Samantha’s character exactly how she is presented to us. She represents a few ideas, I think, such as: Understanding, growth, and even a warning.

     Set in the near future, the story concerns a lonely man named Theodore who is suffering from an unsettling divorce. His only (in)activities include attending work, where he composes handwritten love letters, and playing video games. Essentially, all of Act I shows Theodore with a broken heart. All expositional information given to us fills us in on his past marital status via flashback and dialogue. The break into Act II occurs when Theodore installs a new operating system on his computer. From there (and keep in mind that this is the near future) a relationship begins to ignite between the two. This is the first time we see Theodore really connect with anybody on a serious level. After a blind date goes terribly wrong with a woman Theodore’s friend, Amy, set him up with, we reach the midpoint of the film: Theodore and Samantha copulate. This moment defines for us the love Theodore and Samantha have for one another; there is no denying it. The unthinkable has been achieved. Things are going marvelously for Theodore, he even officially divorces his ex-wife. However, the story shifts gears when Samantha introduces Theodore to another operating system that she is friendly with. And then eventually, at the climax, Theodore is informed that he is not the only one who Samantha speaks with, and in fact, he is not the only one she is in love with. A relationship Theodore thought to be personal and exclusive is in fact shared among many people who own the same software. Theodore is crushed. The resolution of the film marvelously plays with story order and anticipation. We see Theodore writing a letter (a popular motif throughout the film expressing Theodore’s state of mind) to his wife Catherine expressing his love for her and informing her “he will always be apart of her.” Intercut with the images and voice-over of Theodore writing, we flash forward to Theodore going to Amy’s apartment and asking her to go to the roof with him. The hybrid of the voice-over of the letter and the imagery of Theodore on the roof raises a question: Will he kill himself?! This leaves anticipation at an all time high. Appropriately enough, Theodore does not jump, far from it. The last image shows Theodore and Amy, two characters sharing many parallels that revolve around rejection and loneliness, overlooking Los Angeles. Suddenly, Amy puts her head on Theodore’s shoulder and the film ends. At this moment, Theodore’s character arc is completed. He goes from A (alone) to, after many ups and downs, B (companionship with Amy, who he relates to throughout the whole narrative).

     Aside from the script, cinematography and production design lends a helping hand in conveying the story. The opening sequence of the film tends to leave Theodore in wide shots where him and his vibrant red shirt stick out like a sore thumb. The contrast and isolation tacked on Theodore drives home the fact that he’s clearly at odds with the world around him.

 Speaking of the unique shade of red he wears, the audience is never really revealed to any other matching hue like it until we finally meet Samantha… The color red presents a sort of parallel that visually suggests the connection the two share.

Throughout the subjective flashbacks we’re revealed to throughout Act I that inform us about Theodore’s past marriage, the style in which they’re shot in completely contrast and collide with the dark, contrasting imagery of the present tense of the film… a principle Vsevolod Pudovkin would greatly appreciate.

     The film also employs a number of witty edits that further strengthen the film. In one instance, when Theodore is having phone sex that takes a turn for the worst, we start off with an intimate close up of Theodore until the woman on the other end starts to get freaky. We’re given a rather jarring cut, which deliberately violates the thirty-degree rule, to a wider shot where Theodore’s face expresses a feeling of total confusion and slight disgust. This is contrapuntal to the erotic sounds on the other end of the phone call creating great comedy. At the midpoint of the movie, when Theodore and Samantha have sex, what’s shown on the screen is complete darkness accompanied by passionate sounds of ecstasy. While skeptical about this decision at first, I soon realized the beauty and motivation of it. The relationship that Theodore and Samantha have is not based off touch or sight, but by sound and pure emotional connections. So even though the meaningless phone sex is presented to us visually, it still does not compare to the passionate sex with Samantha that we aren’t even visually exposed to. After sex with the human surrogate, which doesn’t turn out for the best, Theodore is seen outside sitting on the curb after sending the girl on her way in a taxicab. Intercut with a shot of Theodore reflecting on his relationship, we’re shown a girl walking down the road away from that camera and a shot of steam pouring out from a manhole. The synthesis of these images suggests a concept of distance and anger, which is later explicitly stated by Samantha in a conversation with Theodore.

     Aside from the marvelous cinematic techniques employed throughout the film, Her also speaks volumes on an ideological level. In this day and age where many seem to be fully immersed into their smart phones and tablets, it’s beneficial for a reality check to be served up from time to time. While I conclude that Samantha ultimately breaks Theodore out of his shell as a character, we must not forget that she also breaks his heart when she states that she is revamping the operating system with a fellow operating system and that she also has relationships with other operating system users. This emotionally damaging event for Theodore can be viewed as a sociological metaphor. While technological advancements in the film leave Theodore alone (temporarily), technological advances in society could potentially render the obsolescence of personal relationships, therefore leaving everyone alone. While the latter statement can seem a bit exaggerated, it still serves as a valuable warning of some sort and should be considered by many living in this rapidly expanding digital era.

* I do not claim to own the right to any of the still images displayed within this post.