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| Star Joaquin Phoenix's giant face with hipster mustache and a red shirt against a pink background makes up this simple poster for Spike Jonze's Her |
In the near future, urbanite Theodore works his way towards finalizing his divorce, while he falls in love with an OS (an artificial intelligence operative system) by the name Samantha.
Her is written, co-produced and directed by New-Yorker master filmmaker Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich (1999)), whose 4th feature it is.
Joaquin Phoenix (Signs (2002)) impresses again in a very intimate and sympathetic performance here; and Scarlett Johansson (Ghost in the Shell (2017)) is also outstanding in an unusually strong voice performance as Samantha. Chris Pratt (Passengers (2016)), Olivia Wilde (Life Itself (2018)) and Rooney Mara (Una (2016)) are fine, but it is especially Amy Adams (Lullaby (2014)) that one comes to care about here, although I enjoyed Phoenix and Adams as a couple more in Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master (2012).
Her relies on a distinctive and interesting story, which nevertheless has sides to it that bother me: Firstly it is, and continues to be, freaky to fall in love with a computer's voice, (even if Johansson does that voice.) The film shows friendship and romantic relationships incisively, - their weaknesses, frailties and misunderstandings especially, - which is implicitly why people in this really quite disheartening future turn away from each other. Jonze's version of the future is a well-dressed, smoothie-drinking, conflict-averse construction, - a hipster dream/nightmare, which seems incomplete to me: too slick and attractive. And the perspectives in previous Jonze films (his debut Being John Malkovich for one) simply reach farther.
Related posts:
Spike Jonze: The day after ... The Oscars 2014
Top 10: Best films about filmmaking
2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Adaptation (2002) or, Charlie Kaufman's Fictional Life
1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Top 10: Best fantasy movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Being John Malkovich (1999) - Jonze, Kaufman and Malkovich's great triumph
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 23 mil. $
Box office: 48.5 mil. $
= Flop (returned 2.10 times its cost)
[Her premiered 12 October (New York Film Festival) and runs 126 minutes. Jonze had had the first idea for the film in the early 2000s when first encountering an early AI voice system. He later based much of the script on his divorce from Sofia Coppola in 2003. Shooting took place in 'mid 2012' in Shanghai, China and in California, including in Los Angeles. Samantha Morton voiced Samantha but was replaced with Johansson in post production. The film opened #23 to a 260k $ first weekend in 6 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #10 and in 1,729 theaters, grossing 25.5 mil. $ (52.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 3 mil. $ (6.2 %) and Italy with 2.7 mil. $ (5.6 %). It was nominated for 5 Oscars, winning for Best Original Screenplay. It lost Best Picture to 12 Years a Slave, Production Design to The Great Gatsby, Song (The Moon Song by Karen O and Jonze) to Let It Go from Frozen by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez and Score (Will Butler, Owen Pallett) to Steven Price for Gravity. It also won an AFI award, 1/3 Golden Globe nominations, was nominated for a Grammy and won 2 National Board of Review awards, among many other honors. The film additionally made in excess of 4.9 mil. $ on home video copies in North America. Jonze has returned with 12 shorts, music videos, a documentary etc. but no feature since. Phoenix returned in Inherent Vice (2014); Adams in American Hustle (2013); and Johansson in Street of Dreams (2013, video) and HitRECord on TV (2014, TV-series) prior to her theatrical return in Chef (2014). Her is certified fresh at 94 % with a 8.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Her?
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