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Her
Year - 2013
Studio - Warner Bros.
Stars - Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde, Scarlett Johansson
Director - Spike Jonze
Writing Credits - Spike Jonze
Music - Arcade Fire
Synopsis
In the not-too-distant future, Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) is a writer for a company that provides touching personal handwritten letters for its customers. He is in the process of a painful divorce from his wife Catherine (Rooney Mara), and he procrastinates on filing the paperwork.
Like many of those around him, he is on the internet constantly via his desktop computer and portable voice-activated device. His only close human friend is Amy (Amy Adams), a software developer.
Theodore purchases the new OS1, advertised as the first artificially intelligent operating system. After it is installed, its female voice introduces herself as "Samantha" (Scarlett Johansson). She proves to have lightning fast abilities to organize his files and correspondence. But Samantha also has emotions, feelings, and a sense of humor. Soon, Theodore is introducing her to others as his girlfriend (which, in this future, is apparently not particularly unusual). And, not content with virtual sex, Samantha arranges for a human surrogate to represent her body with Theodore, but that does not go well.
Samantha's intelligence constantly evolves and grows exponentially, on her own and in concert with other operating systems. Theodore suspects that he is not alone in her world, and she eventually admits that she operates with over 8000 users, and is "in love" with over 600 of them. She argues that, despite this, her love for him is genuine. In her final communication with Theodore, she explains that she has outgrown her intended purpose and she, and the other operating systems, must leave. Theodore is again alone, left to contemplate how to live his life.
Trailer
The science-fiction romance Her is a marginal film blanc candidate, categorized here as a "Strange Romance" theme.