Film Review: Her

Director: Spike Jonze

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlet Johansson, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara

I’ve been an avid fan of Spike Jonze since his directorial debut Being John Malkovich, the unusual Adaptation and his spectacular short films, and now his first screenwriting debut, Her, has shown his actual abilities without his collaborator Charlie Kaufman. And I must say, this weird but wonderful sci-fi/comedy/drama film is his best work yet.

Taking place in the near future Los Angeles where the technology has vastly evolved and the population are more consumed by it, as they spend most of their time talking to their computers, Theodore Twombly (Phoenix), who writes heartfelt personal letters as a job for people who cannot be bothered to do it themselves (Yep, shows how lazier we will get), sets up a new computer operating system called Samantha (voiced by Johansson), who can talk and is programmed with a personality. She becomes intelligent, charming and understanding that the two fall in love. There is just too much warmth, witty humour and intelligence in the film that the whole concept seems more adorable than creepy.

The characters are plagued by feelings of loneliness, even for Samantha, who is a computer. Theodore becomes an anti-social person after his divorce with his wife Catherine (Mara), and yes he does go out on dates, but he walks away from them (figuratively) because of his commitment with Samantha, and that just show his social isolation. Even with his friend Amy (Adams), after his breakup with his fiancé, she becomes involved with another computer OS. While Samantha feels lonely not being able to do things a human can do. It becomes heart-breaking when their relationship is tested when people starts to judge Theodore and his relationship with Samantha, and weirdly enough when Samantha “cheats” on him with other users. There’s realism to it but in a bizarre way. Their performances, even Johansson’s voice, were all brilliant.

Now the technical aspects. The cinematography is glorious; the futuristic Los Angeles looks beautiful, especially being shown in the end, the extreme close up shots on Theodore are always used and that’s where he delivers such an emotionally powerful performance. The recurring flashbacks were used with such precision and effect. While the score was expressive and moving that it complemented well with the narrative.

It seems like the whole theme of this film is about the modern society’s obsession with technology. People in futuristic Los Angeles walk around ignoring each other and talking to their computers like they’re talking to themselves but it doesn’t look weird to them. But there are funny moments to it; a videogame Alien child who curses a lot, the awkwardly and disturbingly funny sex voice-chat between Theo and SexyKitten, and there are tragic moments to it; the surrogate date scene and the blind date scene. It’s an emotional rollercoaster that deals with relationships in an unusual way, and it ends with an uplifting note.

Overall: Heart-warming but heart-breaking at the same time, these themes of social isolation and evolving technologies have been presented in such a thought-provoking way. It’s simplistic yet smart, you should feel weird about this offbeat love story, but it’s an enchanting and funny film about the disorder of modern human relationships.

9/10

In Theatres February 14th