Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh until Thu 13 Mar @ times vary

Spike Jonze / USA / 2013 / 126mins

When Marty McFly used a hoverboard in Back to the Future II, it was cool. The endless possibilities of technology were exciting. More and more however, it’s depicted as something we should be wary of. Technological advancement sits at the heart of Spike Jonze’s latest feature, Her, but it’s a film much less about our reliance on systems, instead using it as a metaphor to question the very essence of what it is to be human and the experience of love.

The concept is simple: Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) falls in love with Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), an intuitive operating system – yes, a computer – with the ability to learn from her mistakes. It’s weird; it’s meant to be. The imagination is stretched in order to ask the fundamental question: what is it to feel?

In truth, the film asks more questions than it answers, but it will force you to confront the need to find them long after the credits roll. Her is set in a vibrant dystopian Los Angeles that would be seductive if it wasn’t so hollow; Theodore works for BeautifulHandwrittenLetters.com. Throughout, Phoenix delivers a subtle, compelling performance. The search for fulfilment and wholeness – and proof that is exists – is exemplified in Theodore’s deliberation over the morality of the relationship. Ultimately, he proceeds with the idea that if it makes you feel something, it can’t be wrong. But Jonze is smart – he doesn’t leave it there: his audience is neither allowed to be cynical of relationships, nor for a moment believe that love conquers all.

The characters portrayed by Amy Adams and Rooney Mara offer alternative perspectives, but make one thing clear: the people who come into our lives, make us. We validate that against a spectrum of societal norms – in Theodore’s case, a technologically dependent culture. But emotions are unpredictable, unless of course they are programmed. To find the joy of love in another person, who is as human and vulnerable to that unpredictability as you, is quite a feat.