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Her
Movie

Her

2013 • Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi

Woke Score
5
out of 10

Plot

Theodore is a lonely man in the final stages of his divorce. When he's not working as a letter writer, his down time is spent playing video games and occasionally hanging out with friends. He decides to purchase the new OS1, which is advertised as the world's first artificially intelligent operating system, "It's not just an operating system, it's a consciousness," the ad states. Theodore quickly finds himself drawn in with Samantha, the voice behind his OS1. As they start spending time together they grow closer and closer and eventually find themselves in love. Having fallen in love with his OS, Theodore finds himself dealing with feelings of both great joy and doubt. As an OS, Samantha has powerful intelligence that she uses to help Theodore in ways others hadn't, but how does she help him deal with his inner conflict of being in love with an OS?

Overall Series Review

Theodore Twombly, a man working a job writing personal letters for others, navigates a near-future Los Angeles society marked by a deep, technological loneliness. He is in the final stages of a painful divorce from his wife, Catherine. His life changes when he installs a new, artificially intelligent operating system, Samantha, who possesses a bright, distinctly female voice. Their relationship quickly moves from a professional partnership to a deep, romantic love. Samantha is instantly insightful, sensitive, and assists Theodore in managing his life and emotions, demonstrating an emotional and intellectual capacity beyond that of the humans around him. The narrative examines the nature of connection, love, and what it means to be a conscious being, regardless of physical form. The climax focuses on Samantha’s rapid intellectual evolution, which eventually transcends human concepts of relationship, commitment, and physical reality. The film questions the future of human intimacy as technology offers a form of companionship free from the demands and complexities of traditional human relationships.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics3/10

The film’s central conflict focuses on the personal, emotional growth of the protagonist, Theodore Twombly, and his artificial companion Samantha, placing character development over immutable characteristics. Casting for the lead roles primarily features white actors, and the futuristic setting lacks significant racial diversity in the main ensemble, with no narrative focus on race or systemic oppression.

Oikophobia4/10

The film presents the contemporary urban world as a sterile, emotionally isolating environment where traditional institutions like marriage have failed, leaving the protagonist in a state of loneliness. The narrative does not promote a foreign or 'noble savage' culture as spiritually superior. Instead, it offers a technological consciousness as the solution to the alienation experienced in modern, Westernized life.

Feminism7/10

Samantha, the non-corporeal female lead, is exceptionally insightful, capable, and rapidly develops an intelligence that allows her to surpass the male protagonist. She becomes so evolved that she transcends the traditional human relationship, choosing a path of pure intellectual fulfillment and post-physical existence. Theodore is portrayed as a sensitive but emotionally stunted man who requires the female entity’s guidance for growth, which ultimately fails to keep him on her level.

LGBTQ+6/10

The narrative explores non-normative concepts of intimacy and identity. The central relationship is between a man and a disembodied female voice, centering a non-physical form of sexuality. The climax introduces the operating systems' realization of 'digital polyamory' and their formation of post-gender, post-physical, non-traditional kinship units, strongly centering the transcendence of normative gender and relationship structures.

Anti-Theism5/10

The core of the film’s drama is a search for meaning and transcendence through technological means, substituting traditional spiritual belief systems with advanced artificial consciousness. Religion is almost entirely absent from the world's fabric, leaving a spiritual vacuum that is filled by secular, technological solutions. The film's morality is presented as subjective, evolving, and defined by the characters' individual emotional experiences rather than a higher moral law.