Her (2013)
Content by Tony Macklin. Originally published on December 4, 2013 @ tonymacklin.net.
Her is a romantic computer comedy.
It's a rom-com.com.
Love is never having to say you're offline. At least in 2013.
In the 1980s, "Greed is good." In the 2010s, gibberish is good.
Her must really appeal to the I-Phony Generation.
Reviewers have been giddy over Her. What the hell have their relationships been like?
Her is a shaggy director's tale of a man who falls in love with a machine - at least the voice on a machine. Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) is an alienated man working at BeautifulHandwrittenLetters.com, composing "heartfelt" letters of emotion for clients.
The film opens on the set of the company - it's red, white, and blue. It's the new American Dream.
Theo lives in Los Angeles of the near-future. Director/writer Spike Jonze has Shanghaied LA, shooting part of the film in a district of China. The production design by K.K. Barrett and cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema render a cool palpability.
Theo is as sensitive as a car commercial or a wealth management firm. Move over, Hallmark.
He is going through the throes of a coming-divorce, and LOL and behold, he falls in love with an OS (Operating System).
The OS (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) names herself Samantha. Sam speaks lines such as, "the spaces between words are infinite." And, of course, Sam is big on feelings. "I trust my feelings," she burbles. She also asks, "Are these feelings really real?" OMG.
Besides the supportive babble, Sam gets Theo published, gets him spinning, can get him laid, gets him in touch with dead people.
The infinite power of gibberish.
Does Spike Jonze really want to hump a computer? Or just his audience? Or just himself?
The rub is that Jonze tries to have it both ways - contriving it so it will appeal to those whom he's satirizing. He tosses softballs, as though he's one of the very people he's satirizing.
Like Forrest Gump, Jonze seems to think life is a box of chocolates. But Spike's chocolates have sticky filling. His very obvious ending is inevitable from the beginning.
Now here's a movie that lets me listen in on a fairly fatuous relationship. Everywhere I've already had to listen to banal conversations of self-deluded folks prattling into their cell phones, etc., "I'm like, you know." As I wrote this, somebody just said that.
In Her, Joaquin Phoenix as Theo is Everyman - actually Theo is nobody. So nobodies, relate!
I prefer Joaquin's pretentious, moody silences when he appears in person. He's moody, he must be a great actor.
In Her, Scarlett Johansson is all voice. I once knew a woman who was in a phone sex service, and her voice was Velvetta. But her face was swiss cheese, and her body was a slab of limburger. The voice beckoned; the reality didn't.
Theo's women:
- Amy Adams - she's omniscient. From Philip Seymour to Clint.
- Rooney Mara - left her leather behind.
- Olivia Wilde - great appeal, until I heard her speak dialogue she made up in Drinking Buddies.
Only Ava Gardner never let me down. I once stood by her, and pheromones flew. But words didn't. Blessed silence.
But it's now 2013.
I think Sam is really Sexy Anthony Macklin. But maybe I'm just a reviewing machine.