Her is the first time Spike Jonze has written and directed a movie and it’s a marvelous achievement from every angle. With an unusual genre to tackle (sci-fi, romance, drama), Her could have been a disaster of a movie but starting with an excellent script, it’s one of my favorite of the year so far.

Theodore is a introverted man who works for a letter writing company. While he dazzles with the written word for strangers, his real life romantic capabilities have hit an all time low. He’s in the middle of a divorce from his high school sweet heart and prefers to keep to himself and play videogames. When he buys the new computer operating system, “OS1” he ends up falling in love with the software that was designed to meet a users every need with cutting edge artificial intelligence.

Her takes place is the not to distant future where our everyday communication and working tech has become more ubiquitous and smarter. This future is one that is more than likely actually going to happen. The tech giants like Microsoft, Apple and Google are well on the way with learning and predictive tech that caters to our every need. Voice recognition and verbal communication with our devices is getting better every single year. “OS1” shows what could be the ultimate goal for these companies. The “brain” of the OS is always with you in this cool little computer that fits into your pocket. The logical evolution of our cell phones, it’s a phone, computer, planner…everything for every moment in your life. The “current” software is slightly more advanced version of Google Now and Siri. You keep your device in your pocket, an ear pieces lets you tell it what you want and let’s you hear responses. Tell it to read emails, dictate replies, make calls, get reminders etc. In a funny observation of today, people are completely engrossed by their devices unless the are eating together. People whip by each other on the street staring at a screen and talking to themselves with a earpiece jammed in. Half the time human interaction doesn’t exist. But, the next gen “OS1” has a complex artificial intelligence that learns about you. It’s constantly learning and gaining a personality of its own. It takes away the wall of human interaction with a machine and replaces it with a really human interaction for everything. It’s easy to see how and why Theodore falls in love with a being that isn’t human.

In other tech advances, computers are more or less just windows in a room with touch interfaces. Theodore plays video games on a holographic projection system in his apartment. In fact he lives in a smart apartment where the lights come on by themselves as he enters. It’s cool, beautiful, convincing and most importantly, believable.

Spike Jonez is known as a great director with a keen eye and Her keeps those compliments coming. It’s a sharp looking movie, carefully crafted with a warm color scheme. I’m super impressed by the writing as it tackles hard and new subjects about love and relationships with brains and grace. Dialog never sounded trite, stupid or condescending. Part of this success relies on Joaquin Phoenix who delivers a brilliant performance as Theodore.  He’s in just about ever single scene, often by himself with the voice of Scarlett Johansson as Samantha (the name OS1 gave herself when Theodore first installs the program). The whole time I watched I never thought I was watching Joaquin, but Theo (maybe it was the mustache).

I can’t say enough good things about Her. So much so that I can’t think of anything bad to say about it. I wasn’t sure how Jonze was going to finish this story, but he pulls it off with a great and thoughtful ending that solidifies it as a must see movie.