Sunday, April 24, 2016

Letters in Films: Her

Her is a 2013 American romantic sicence fiction comedy-drama film written, directed and produced by Spike Jonze. It tells the story of Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a man who develops a relationship with Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), an intelligent computer operating system personified through a female voice. 

The film was not very well-received in Spain, in fact I talked about it in class on Thursday and nobody had even heard of it. However, I did enjoy it. I like Joaquin Phoenix (you can't deny his versatility as an actor), the setting (that techno-perfect Los Angeles of the near future), Scarlett Johansson's sexy voice, and above all I love Theodore Twombly.

He is a lonely guy with an unattractive moustache and glasses who wears the high-waisted slacks that have apparently become fashionable for men in this era. He has an entirely unironic job in a company called BeautifulHandwrittenLetters.com in a "creative" office space: Theodore composes special-occasion letters for the tongue-tied, the inarticulate and the illiterate, and his firm's state-of-the-art software will print out authentic-looking handwritten drafts of his dictation. 


The idea that there is a market for such a niche luxury service in the near future fascinates me. It is a profitable one too, since Theodore lives in a spectacular apartment, and his material comfort does not appear to be affected by a nasty, ongoing divorce from Catherine (Rooney Mara).

And finally here's a scene with a moving dialogue about books as a metaphor for relationships.

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