Her- A Heartwarming Tale of Love, Desperation, and High-Rising Pants

In the 80's and 90's, falling for your blow-up doll was all the rage. Okay, maybe that was just in my house, but let's just say there was a sort of running gag about lovelorn losers falling for an air-filled, inhuman, yet strikingly attractive doll.

In Her, operating systems are the new blow-up dolls, only for the completely opposite reasons. While blow-up dolls were objects of pure physical pleasure (I'm told), the operating system fling simply satisfies the human desire for companionship and someone to talk to. In the not-completely-unrealistic future in Her, contact with fellow humans is generally eschewed, as people can't be bothered to look up from their phones long enough to acknowledge the homo-sapiens right in front of them. To be honest, given the frumpy style of dress and general disheveled look the people in the film have, I'm not sure I'd want to look up either.

The movie raised a few far-reaching questions for me: What exactly do we desire from a relationship? Will technology really advance to the point where human contact is no longer a necessity? Would the story have been as believable if the voice of the operating system were say, Anne Ramsey instead of Scarlett Johansson? Is the torrid affair I had with Windows '95 suddenly a little more legitimate?

The preceding paragraphs may not have hinted at whether or not I enjoyed the movie, which I absolutely did. Watch it on your computer, you just might fall in love with it. The computer that is.


Mix in a belt!!!