Film Review: Her

It’s so nice when a movie is so good it can defy your previously conceived notions/fear. To be honest, when I first heard about Her,I had ZERO desire to watch it. How interesting would a movie about a dude falling in love with a computer be? And given my feelings towards the other Spike Jonze films I’d seen I was skeptical of this latest effort. Even with all those misgivings, I made sure to get myself to a screening at AFI Fest to see what all the praise and affectations were about with this movie.

Her didn’t particularly blow my socks off but damn if it isn’t a solid movie with some great moments. In the creation and presentation of this film, Spike Jonze has crafted a post-modern love story that manages to transcend a pretty silly premise.

Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Her tells the story of Theodore Twombly, a man who is sort of stuck in a malaise. Three months out of splitting with his long time sweetheart, he still hasn’t signed the divorce papers and just moves through the world without much in the way of positive interaction. Sure he still has his friends and manages to function, but there’s not much in the way of really meaningful relationships. That all changes when he downloads a new operating system for his computer and begins a relationship with Samantha, the consciousness developed by the O.S. It’s through this interaction that Theodore is able to reconnect with the world and develop new emotions and interactions.

As I mentioned earlier, I was very apprehensive about the plot for the story, to the point I didn’t want to see the film. Spike Jonze however drew me in from the first moments with this screenplay and managed to deliver a solid experience. Much will be made of the relationship between Theodore and Samantha, but I was even more impressed with the world building Jonze conjured up. The opening sequences where you slowly get pieces of what makes this future world different is a wonderful thing to behold.

But let’s be honest, this movie lives and dies on the believability and sincerity of a man’s relationship with an O.S. Jonze crafts such a wonderful story there, free of judgement and malice, and truly believable. Sometimes you have to give props where props are do, Jonze’s screenplay is great.

Also great are the visuals. This is one gorgeous movie. Jonze’s films are always visually interesting, if unnecessarily cooky. Her is just amazing to look at though, from the production design to the wonderful costumes. Cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema manages to capture both the bright ambiance and desolate loneliness of the characters.

Joaquin Phoenix is one of this generation’s finest actors and he turns in a great performance. WHat struck me most about his performance is that despite the character, Phoenix never plays this man like a sad sack. He’s just a man with a few eccentricities that happens to fall in love with an O.S. This performance is even more impressive when you consider he was probably acting to someone off screen reading lines. Scarlett Johanssen is probably the person everyone would say is the MVP of the film and it’s true she gives some great voice work. For someone with such a recognizable voice, she does manage to do some nuanced vocal work to give the character a different feel.

Her is certainly one of the best films of the year and I’d definitely encourage everyone to check it out when it arrives in theaters December 18.

Grade: ***1/2/**** (A-)