Exploring Love and Personal Growth in 'Her'

Mr. Jonze’s Her is a captivating masterpiece of modern cinema, while it might be easiest to approach what the film says about mankind’s interaction with technology, I think what it says about relationships in general is much more interesting. The common theme that I pulled from the movie, is that relationships can be used to help us grow as individuals and it left me wondering what of those lessons, we should take with us should the relationship end? As we meet our protagonist, Theodore, he’s recently separated from his wife and appears to not be trying very hard to move on. He makes a comment early on about his ex, Catherine, and how he influenced her by helping her to not take life so seriously. In through a series of montages played throughout

Throughout the movie, the viewer is witness to essentially her life, from birth to what we can presume to be some sort of an afterlife. Through Theodore, she learns to live, what it is to be human and how to love. In return, she essentially reteaches Theodore the same. Very much a broken, loner at the beginning of the movie, Samantha, through her youthful hunger for life helps to break Theodore out of his depression and teach him to love, not just a woman, but life again. The distinction between a relationship with a human woman and an artificial intelligence no longer matter to him, to the point where he actually refused the services of a surrogate body, against Samantha’s wishes. It’s a scene, which again can be easy to take for its surface value but also demonstrates just how committed Theodore is to this new

The novelty of an artificial intelligence dating a human quickly washed away to tell a very human, relatable story. Relationships have a way of bringing out the best in by helping us expand our perceived limits and grow past them, but as is the case early in the movie, they can also paralyze us. Her works because Theodore’s journey is so relatable, we have all experienced the euphoric joy of a new relationship, filled with new experiences and we have all felt his despair over lost love. A truly great movie is not over when the credits roll, a truly great movie is one that stays with you and forces you to think not just about the movie itself but what it says about your own life. In one final act of mirroring the viewer is left to ponder the message much in the same way Samantha and Theodore pondered what it is to be alive and in love and in that way the story lives