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I
hadn’t taken Spike Jonze into account. I
first became acquainted with Jonze through his work with Charlie Kaufman, where
I saw his adept direction and eye for detail.
He directs and writes Her, and he creates a compelling,
emotional sci-fi-ish story about connecting in the information age and what it
means to be human.
Theo
(Joaquin Phoenix, in an affecting performance) is shy, sensitive, and single –
a perfect cocktail for loneliness. He’s
had his heart broken, and he walk solitarily through his world (the
Not-Too-Distant Future.) Like many
around him, his life is lived plugged in.
He’s all about his 3-D motion-controlled video games, Lonely Hearts
Clubs phone chats with strangers, and keeping the world contained within his
smartphone.
Everything
he knows changes, of course, with the introduction of a new
artificially-intelligent operating system.
From the moment he meets Sam, the self-named amiable voice inside his
phone and computer, Theo is struck by her.
She’s quick and funny, and their working relationship soon moves into
and beyond friendship. A romance in
which only one of the participants is corporeal presents a challenge, and Theo
and Sam navigate the ups and downs of their relationship. It’s sometimes messy, sometimes painful,
sometimes exquisite, and in Jonze’s careful hands, it’s always riveting.
Right
from the start, he does things right by giving Sam a perspective of her
own. The idea of an
artificially-intelligent woman dating the man she’s literally been created to
serve is sketchy at best, and the power imbalance could’ve easily rendered the whole
thing uniformly awful. However, Sam
proves herself an equal partner in the relationship. She has feelings of her own that she wants
addressed, and when she and Theo argue, there are moments when you can forget
she doesn’t have a body. Furthermore,
she has a journey of self-discovery apart from her connection to Theo. Throughout the film, Sam tries to figure out
who she is, what she is and isn’t capable of, and what that means for her. Scarlett Johansson does a great job building
the character from her warm, engaging vocal performance.
The
film also examines what happens to society when such a huge technological leap
is made. Theo isn’t the only person
connecting with an OS, and the world is shifting to take the resulting issues
into account. It’s smart, thoughtful
writing. In a way, the film reminds me
of Gattaca, another stylish movie
that uses science fiction to ruminate on a contemporary subject in an
intelligent way – in this case, the subject is technology and its effect on the
human community.
Warnings
Language
and sexual content, including graphic sexual talk and a little nudity.
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