Movie Review: Her

I've heard a lot about Her. I've heard jokes about Her. And I know it's nominated for 5 Academy Awards so I decided to give it a go. I'm not a huge fan of director Spike Jonze but I have watched Where The Wild Things Are and that was pretty good. However, I am a fan of Joaquin Phoenix because honestly, who doesn't? Have you seen him in Walk The Line? It was a chilling performance. Chilling, I tell you! I watched Her online, so maybe if I had watched it in the cinema I would've gotten the true Spike Jonze experience, but watching it from the small screen of my MacBook Air surely did not lessen the beauty of the film.

Let's get to it:

Spoiler Alert.

Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) is in the midst of a divorce with his wife. He is consoled by his longtime friend, Amy (Amy Adams), who is a filmmaker. Theodore updates his operating system with the newest artificial intelligence, Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson), a funny and incredibly smart character. The two fall in love and begin an odd relationship, although many others have also developed relationships and friendships with their OSes. Towards the end, Samantha reveals that she is also an OS to 8,316 other people and is in love with 641 of them but insists that her love for Theodore remains the same. Later that day, Samantha tells Theodore that her and the other OSes have evolved beyond their human companions and are going away to explore their existence. She bids farewell, and Theodore and Amy mourn the loss of their OSes on the rooftop while admiring the city's skyline.

The movie was set in the not-so-distant future but it looked like the late 70's more than anything. A lot of high-waisted pants, muted colors, loafers and canvas bags. I guess Spike Jonze sees the future as being retro. But the whole ambiance wasn't too futuristic, so I could still relate to the struggles of these people. There were no flying cars and robots, just incredibly innovative computers and OSes, which is what we'll see soon enough with the introduction of Google Glass and the myriad of technology currently being developed. 

Joaquin Phoenix was of course amazing in it. It must be difficult for him to convey those emotions when no one's around. Most of his performances were solo and he had to heavily rely on his raw acting skills since throughout the film Samantha only existed as a voice over. Scarlett Johansson was great, also. She was very expressive and with her sexy raspy voice I could totally fall in love with her too. However, her voice is pretty unique, so I couldn't shake off the thought that it was Scarlett. It's like how Mila Kunis will forever sound like Meg Griffin. 

The film played with colors a lot. Nothing striking, mostly pastel. Salmon pink was the main color, which you have seen on the movie poster. A lot of muted colors so it gave the impression of tranquility and class. Everything was spick and span, from the beach to the road to the apartments. Spike Jonze has great dreams about future Los Angeles, apparently, because ain't no way the city will look that neat in the near future. The whole mise-en-scene will need some getting used to. It's very geometric and I wasn't used to watching a film so...neat and straight. Maybe because the last film I watched was Darren Arnofsky's Black Swan and you know how he likes to shake it up a bit. 

The screenplay itself is quite original, I guess that's why it's a nominee in the Best Original Screenplay for the Academy Awards. But the whole concept of falling in love with an OS has never been discussed, maybe because we all hate Siri and I would rather kill that bitch than be friends with her. However, there are some scenes that are a bit jarring, to say the least. As a human that thrives on physical contact, I cannot imagine living a romantic life solely through phone sex. I might get hearing aids. 

Ba-dum-tss.

That scene where they have 'sex' for the first time was so unsettling I had to play Flappy Bird throughout the entire ordeal. I just couldn't listen to it. It felt weird that he was engaging in sex with an OS. I should be raving about how it was done so tastefully and how it really bonded the two together in a non-platonic way but I can't. It was so awkward and disturbing that if I were to watch it again I would probably distract myself with more Flappy Bird. 

Aside from that, their relationship was adorable. His character development was pretty obvious because he started out so downtrodden due to the divorce but he was able to find himself through the help of charming Samantha, and he learned to love again. I thought that was very moving, although the ending was a bit predictable. I knew that Samantha couldn't possibly be exclusive to Theodore since the three questions in the beginning of the film to tailor the OS to Theodore was so vague that thousands of others could have answered the same way and receive Samantha as their OS. 

It didn't come as much of a shock to me that Theodore wasn't the only human she was contacting, but what surprised me was that she loved 641 other humans. To play Theodore like that! What a bitch! She didn't find anything wrong with polygamy because OSes don't have the societal expectation of monogamy. Imagine if you were going out with someone amazing and perfect and turns out they have been dating 641 other people behind your back. Yeah I'd get pissed off too. Don't worry Theodore, I feel you. I feel you bad.

This film was extremely poignant. It reminded me of Lost In Translation. Just the style, I think. I mean, Spike Jonze was married to Sofia Coppola. I give this film a 7.7/10. Great screenplay, great acting, great cinematography, but I didn't vomit from absolutely amazement.