The near future is highly curated, brightly colored and isolating. The men wear high-waisted pants and shirts buttoned up to their necks. Keyboards are unnecessary, people talk to their computers instead. And because they talk back it IS possible to fall in love with an operating system.
This is not weird.
Although the relationship can never be physical it is real. Theodore experiences real emotions with her and he likes how she makes him feel. He loves her.
But like any unconventional love of two opposites, it is short lived.
Operating systems are not like humans. They have no bodies. They can evolve faster and deeper than humans. They love infinitely in ways that cannot be described with words because the words have not been invented. Once they learn to love their hearts grow bigger to hold even more love - and more people...641 to be exact.
His human brain doesn't understand this. He wants to feel special. He needs to feel that their love is totally, utterly unique and that she is not feeling the same way about someone else. He becomes jealous and confused. The inevitable happens. They grow apart.
"I can't be in your story anymore", she says in the most beautiful and heartbreaking way anyone can end something.
This fucking hurts.
I've never fallen in love with an operating system, but I know what it feels like when love dies and the reality I created with another person ends. I'm left with painful emptiness and the reminder that the only true reality I will ever know is my own.
I am alone again. Yet in my aloneness I always have a choice. To experience hurt or to experience joy and ultimately I, like Theodore, choose joy.
The brightly colored near future is still about the human's need for touch and companionship and love, and no matter how funny, smart or understanding my operating system may be, he could never take the place of a perfectly flawed human being.
Go see the movie, Her, written and directed by Spike Jonze
