TO LOVE SOMEBODY // A FILM REVIEW OF "HER"
(originally published here on 10/12/13 as part of the NYFF coverage)
Films about technology in the future tend to always go in the far distant future, where cars fly, holograms walk around like people, and everything looks like every other sci-fi movie from the past. However, when a film comes along and presents a world that is just right around the corner from us (i.e. no flying cars or things that couldn't happen within a few years from now) that's when it can really strike a cord. That is one of the most impressive things about HER, Spike Jonze's newest offering set in a world just a few years past our own. Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore, a lonely young man still reeling from his past love (Rooney Mara). He doesn't do much in his spare time other than play video games (which are, in themselves, hilarious) or hang out with his friends, namely Amy (Amy Adams). He's lonely, unsure each day where to place that lonliness. One day he sees an ad for a new OS1 system, the world's first artificially intelligent operating system. It's an operating system set up to talk into your ear and confide in you, let you confide in it. A friend for the lonely, someone to help you keep track of your life, countless other things. Theodore's OS1 system is named Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) and they bond immediately. So much that he can't imagine spending any time without her, and they begin to fall in love.
In no way is Jonze's story a typical one, but it's a magical and powerfully original one. Phoenix plays the hurting of Theodore so well that you feel the longing every time he does, and Johansson does such an incredible job voicing Samantha you believe that he could fall in love with this tender, caring woman. The future just looks slightly different; pants have a different look to them (a bit higher in the waist), the technology is just a bit ahead of our own, and that's what makes this world feel so real; it's right in reach of our own. And it's a perfect comment on our world that's so fused in with technology. People spend half of their lives online and with computers, so why couldn't someone begin to fall in love with one? Back with a beatiful score by "The Yeah Yeah Yeahs" Karen O, Her is a delicate, blossoming, tranfixing film that refuses to leave your head once you see it. And you won't want it to.
MATEO'S GRADE: A
Written and Directed by: Spike Jonze Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams
Rated R: Adult Situations, Adult Language
BOTTOM LINE: Her is a beauty of a film; romantic, wistful, and honest. Close to perfection.