AKA a brief analysis of Her (2013), 11 years later.
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Remember that 2013 movie where Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with Siri? Turns out “Her” wasn’t just another weird sci-fi film – it pretty much saw our future coming.
Set in a world that looks a lot like tomorrow, “Her” follows Theodore, a professional letter-writer (yes, that’s his job) who’s getting over a divorce when he meets Samantha. She’s smart, funny, and gets him like no one else does. She’s also an AI living in his phone. Before you roll your eyes, the film makes their connection feel surprisingly… normal.
What makes “Her” stand out is how it nails our current reality. Think about it: we’re all glued to our phones, having deep conversations with ChatGPT, and some of us are even finding love through apps. Sound familiar? The movie saw this coming a decade ago, minus the high-waisted pants everyone wears in the future (though those came back too).
Director Spike Jonze doesn’t go the typical “technology is evil” route here. Instead, he shows us something more interesting: what if AI doesn’t want to replace us, but is just doing its own thing? Samantha, voiced perfectly by Scarlett Johansson, starts off trying to be human but ends up becoming something else entirely. It’s less about robots taking over and more about them growing up and moving out.
The film’s genius is in the details. The future it shows isn’t flying cars and robots – it’s people walking around talking to their earpieces (AirPods, anyone?), voice-controlled everything, and video games that follow you around the house. Sound like your life yet?
But here’s where it gets real: Theodore’s friends react to his AI relationship the same way some people today might judge someone for having an online relationship or spending too much time with virtual friends. His ex-wife calls him out for “dating his computer” – a criticism that hits different in 2024 when we’re all kind of dating our phones anyway.
What makes “Her” worth watching now isn’t just how it predicted our tech-obsessed world. It’s how it tackles the big question we’re all dealing with: can real connections survive in a digital world? The movie suggests that while AI might get really good at understanding us, there’s still something special about human relationships – messy as they are.
Looking back, “Her” wasn’t just ahead of its time – it was a heads-up about where we were heading. Next time you catch yourself having a heart-to-heart with ChatGPT or feeling genuinely happy about a message from your dating app match, remember: Joaquin Phoenix did it first.