Her (2013)

Let's start with a disclaimer: I didn't watch Her out of any particular sense of enthusiasm. I didn't even watch it because it was the most appealing thing on TV yesterday. I watched it partly because I thought it would give me plenty to think about and write about, but mostly because Mr. B never gets to watch films he wants these days and I knew he'd been waiting on this one for far too long.

Call it personal taste or a character flaw, but I'm just not much of a one for movie romance, no matter how elegant the trappings. Does this make me emotionally stunted? Possibly. Mostly, however, it just makes me somebody who doesn't watch a lot of romcoms or serious drama. I blame my mother for putting me off them, but then, I blame my mother for everything.

One thing Her does boast, however, is an impressive pedigree. Spike Jonze writes and directs - he of Being John Malkovich fame. I haven't seen that either, but I know a lot of people loved it, and I suspect I probably would, too.

Anyhow, back to the matter at hand: Her is set at a nonspecific point in the near future, and tells the story of the appealingly-named Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), who makes a living writing letters for people who presumably lack the eloquence to do it themselves. While he repairs the personal lives of others, however, his own is falling apart - he cannot quite bring himself to divorce his former childhood sweetheart Catherine (Rooney Mara), and his love life is limited to a series of increasingly embarrassing phone sex liaisons.

All of this changes, however, when he purchases a revolutionary new OS for his phone. After a series of basic psychological questions, he is assigned a female OS (Scarlett Johansson), who decides to name herself Samantha. Samantha is created to grow, evolve and adapt to Theodore's needs and requirements, so it's probably not surprising that he soon falls for her. It would be nice to say they immediately live happily ever after, but in addition to being a shocking spoiler on my part, that would make for a very short film - probably not that interesting a one, either.

The good

No way around it: this is a very, very good film indeed. It looks like a dream in every sense of the word, all muted pastels for the scenery and minimal visible makeup for the female characters. Jonze has selected a singularly beautiful cast, then carefully made them dowdy in much the same way he did with Cameron Diaz in Malkovich. It's visually great, but better than that, it's consistently visually interesting.

The performances are great, too, with each actor perfectly inhabiting their role - no mean feat in a movie that I thought was more interested in the concept than the narrative. Phoenix makes Theodore a compelling individual, if an ultimately unknowable one, while Amy Adams and Chris Pratt offer their usual easy, expressive charm in supporting roles. As Samantha, meanwhile, Johansson takes the slightly thankless task of being a disembodied fantasy figure and runs with it; it's not difficult to work out why Theodore would fall so hard for her.

I enjoyed the vein of dark comedy that ran through the movie, too; I laughed out loud once or twice, and cringed several more times in delicious shame. The film is, after all, about experimental technologies, and each character is navigating their own personal maze, complete with dead ends and pitfalls aplenty.

The bad

I honestly don't think I can fault this movie on anything but the most trivial levels.

Did I actually like it, though? No, not really. 

Maybe Jonze was making a point by having none of the characters ever talk about anything except for themselves and their relationships for the film's two hour duration. Maybe (probably) it's a parable about how technology is gradually isolating us. 

Or, y'know, maybe it was just a tiny bit tedious. Stranger things have happened.

It's hard to tell, though, because of this one ludicrous, awful prejudice I have. I'm nearly 40 now, and I can accept that actresses are more attractive than I am. It's an annoyance, true, but I'm mostly past the desperate envy and the feelings of crashing inadequacy.

Except, unfortunately, for Scarlett Johansson. I'm not sure why; it could be the way she's portrayed more than her fair share of blank-canvas fantasy figures, or it could be those perfume ads she does where she comes across as the single most self-satisfied person in human history. I can tolerate her, just, as the Black Widow in the current rash of Marvel movies, where she's only ever an ensemble player and doesn't get the chance to be a sexual fantasy, but her presence in almost any other movie is enough to put me off entirely.

Here, while the character of Samantha definitely has a development arc of her own, her main functions are to be 1) appealing and 2) ultimately unavailable. Objectively speaking, she does it well. Subjectively speaking, it makes me want to bash my head against a brick wall, except for the bits when she breaks into breathy, indie-styled song. Those make me want to bash my head against an IED.

The verdict

A beautiful, thoughtful movie with a distinctive visual sensibility and fantastic performances across the board. I couldn't bring myself to love it, but don't let that put you off.