Set in Los Angeles in the not-so-distant future, “Her” tells the story of Theodore Twombly, a complex man who makes his living writing personal letters for other people. Heartbroken after the end of a relationship, Twombly begins to fall for his new advanced operating system that meets his every need.

I was immediately intrigued by the plot of this movie, as it is not your typical run-of-the-mill love story. However, I was also a bit reluctant: a movie about a guy who not falls for, but has a whole relationship with his operating system?

But this movie isn’t anything that you would expect. Spike Jonze does an amazing job depicting what life might be like in the near future, and creating characters that are very real. You find yourself caught up in the slightly creepy, though not out of the norm (as we later learn) relationship between Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix, Walk The Line) and his OS, “Samantha,” voiced by the ever so sultry Scarlett Johansson (Don Jon).

Nobody is perfect, as this movie shows. Twombly is struggling with the end of a marriage with his childhood sweetheart (Rooney Mara, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) through some sketchy late-night phone calls to a woman who instructs him to “choke her with a dead cat” and a seemingly great first date with the stunning Olivia Wilde that ends abruptly when she learns that he won’t commit to her. His best friend, Amy (Amy Adams, American Hustle) attempts to help Twombly move onward from his obviously devastating split, only to find her own marriage in shambles.

Whenever I imagined the story of a grown man falling in love with his advanced computer system, I never pictured Joaquin Phoenix, as his bad-boy, man-in-black-esque, former (kind of) hip-hop artist reputation wouldn’t allow it. But he definitely proved me, and the rest of the movie watching world, wrong, as he accurately portrays the awkwardly loveable, desperate, heartbroken fellow that is Theodore Twombly.

While this movie is essentially a tale of love and moving forward, it does show a preview of a very possible future. We’ve all been there at one point in our lives, when it seems like the person you are having a conversation with is more interested in their technological device than you, and this problem is only going to increase as we develop our technology more and more. One day, we won’t have to interact with humans face to face, as director/writer Spike Jonze shows us in his debut film.