Her
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara
Director: Spike Jonze
Rating: 4/5
Her marks the return of Spike Jonze to the director’s chair, in what will be his first film since the fantastic Where The Wild Things Are; a movie that you really should check out if you have not seen it yet.
This new film sees him bring together a terrific and all-star cast list, while he has also penned the fascinating and moving screenplay.
Her follows Theodore Twombly, a complex, soulful man who makes his living writing touching, personal letters for other people. Heartbroken after the end of a long relationship, he becomes intrigued with a new, advanced operating system, which promises to be an intuitive entity in its own right, individual to each user.
Upon initiating it, he is delighted to meet 'Samantha,' a bright, female voice, who is insightful, sensitive and surprisingly funny. As her needs and desires grow, in tandem with his own, their friendship deepens into an eventual love for each other.
Her has been one of the most talked about and praised movies since it appeared on the festival circuit last year, and it is not hard to see why everyone has been raving about it.
Her is a beautifully crafted movie that explores themes, of love, friendship, companionship, loneliness, and all this is done within a digitally driven world.
This may be an incredibly offbeat romance film, and yet Jonze never loses the heart and the emotion that really does drive this film. Samantha may be an operating system and we never actually se her on screen, but that doesn’t stop this love story from being touching as well as incredibly fascinating.
Joaquin Phoenix delivers another really great performance in the central role of Theodore, a man who is looking for someone after the end of his marriage. Theodore is a man who has got lost and has lost himself, and his relationship with Samantha really does bring him out of his shell.
Scarlett Johansson also gives an fantastic voice performance as Samantha - I can see why she has won a string of Best Actress awards; it is a shame that the Foreign Press decided that she wasn’t eligible for a Golden Globe nod.
We may never see the character of Samantha on the big screen, but you can hear the fun, emotion and heartbreak through her voice; it really is a truly captivating performance from the actress.
With these two characters, Her really does explore friendship and the nature of love in a digital world; this is a window into a relationship that means so much to both Theodore and Samantha.
At 125 minutes, Her is a tad long: perhaps Jonze could have shaved off around twenty or thirty minutes without doing any damage to the story and the emotion of the film.
Jonze really has delivered a terrific film, which is as funny as it is melancholic and totally heartbreaking. At the same time, this is a real warmth to this movie, as Jonze, Phoenix and Johansson have created two central characters that you care an awful lot about.
Jonze has a habit of delivering touching films, Where The Wild things Are is the perfect example, and he has done just that with Her - this is a must see film.
Her is out now.