“Socially accepted insanity.”
Never has a definition of love been more correct.
Spike Jonze’s “Her” starring Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, and the voice of Scarlett Johansson is a Golden Globe-winning, Oscar-nominated masterpiece, but not for the usual reasons.
Phoenix and Adams’s acting is absolutely incredible. Adams portrays her sad, pathetic character with a surprisingly dynamic art, even better than her already Golden Globe and SAG winning role in “American Hustle.”
Phoenix portrays a low-life man named Theodore, the main character. He’s annoying, puppy-eyed, and also kind of creepy, and yet he’s so human.
“Her” is the story of the near future where people can fall in love with an operating system, which is just what happens to Theodore.
What makes this movie great is that the plot seems impossible, but it’s not. It’s just uncomfortably impossible because the technology we have today doesn’t make it seem like the distant future. The movie somehow captures this love that Theodore feels for his OS, Samantha, and how she reciprocates it, even though she is a computer.
As a viewer, I felt rather uncomfortable for most of the movie, but I could have walked out if I had wanted to and I didn’t. As an aspiring actor, it made me jealous of their talent, and as a person, it made me feel terrified for the future.
“This is me trying to make sense of this insane experience of being alive” -Spike Jonze on #HER. @IrishTimes http://t.co/pT3bFna36j
— Her (@herthemovie) February 8, 2014
Though horribly scary, this movie is actually rather entertaining. It may be a little bit too long, but the plot has twists and turns that I didn’t even see coming, and that’s unusual.
Filled with awkwardness, this movie should win the Oscar for simply being that: awkward. It takes some phenomenal acting and even more sublime writing to successfully make a movie that will keep viewers interested, but also wanting to turn away because of uncomfortable feelings.
This may not be a movie people will see again and again, but it is a movie people should see at least once. It has fabulous acting, even better writing, and beautiful cinematography, painting our world in the near, though let’s hope not very near, future.
