"Her" R
Spike Jonze has a knack for quirky movies that don't really seem to go anywhere. In this one he tries to find deep meaning though, via an oddball romance card writer who falls in love with his IPad. Set in the not too distant future of a Los Angeles with super high rises, where apparently they've eliminated earthquakes, a businessman who works in a cubicle writing letters that people don't want to write themselves, seems lonely after his divorce. (Tree of Life comes to mind at first).
He has two friends, a fake happy couple that he apparently knows from way back, who work near him. They both want him to date and get on with his life. After trying some rather amusing 'phone sex' and playing a virtual video game (plug for some new game), he is introduced to a new operating system called OS1, a Macbook like idea with some Vorizon tossed in, where they've invented a virtual pen pal, a live Tamagachi pet, and it can be female if he likes. He chooses it to be female and begins an odd relationship. It is however not too original. (Heart Beeps, You've Got Mail, Simone, etc). He eventually builds up the courage to finalize his divorce, but his ex finds out about the odd affair he's having and chides him, but his friend has been dumped by her husband, and she also has a computer pal.
The odd psychological ramifications of a world where half the city is jacked into those things is similar to Gattica and the Matrix, but without dark undertones. The way i is filmed, you think it's going to end badly. We get a lot of shots of up close Joaquin Phoenix (the late River's brother), and various other characters, in this weird iFuture with a lot of people plugged into headset ear buds and talking to themselves, texting each other instead of conversing in coffee shops and whatnot. (This is not unusual for Silicon Valley, where it's like that now).
The story could be set a mere 10 years from now.
Is it Oscar worthy? Not really. Sure it has a lot of talking, but like Simone, (a late 90's movie about a simulated actress), half of the acting is doe via a voice over through an avatar, even if it's Scarlett Johassen this time. Certainly it is quirky and worth a rental, but will likely be on the bargain bin by next December.
This is also one of those movies that is only R rated because they added the f word over 20 times. Really they didn't need it, and their audience could have been bigger had it been PG 13. It really didn't need to be R. I don't mind some movies to use profanity, but it wasn't necessary here.
Review by Adam Browne
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