Her

[TNGTony]

[CONTAINER][MOVIE1]Title: Her

Tagline: A Spike Jonze Love Story

Genre: [GENRE]Comedy[/GENRE], [GENRE]Drama[/GENRE], [GENRE]Science Fiction[/GENRE], [GENRE]Romance[/GENRE]

Director: [DIRECTOR]Spike Jonze[/DIRECTOR]

Cast: [ACTOR]Joaquin Phoenix[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Scarlett Johansson[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Rooney Mara[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Amy Adams[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Olivia Wilde[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Chris Pratt[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Portia Doubleday[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Sam Jaeger[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Katherine Boecher[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Kelly Sarah[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Spike Jonze[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Bill Hader[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Kristen Wiig[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Brian Cox[/ACTOR]

Release Date: [RELEASE]2013-12-18[/RELEASE]

Runtime: [RUNTIME]126[/RUNTIME]

Plot: [PLOT]In the not so distant future, Theodore, a lonely writer purchases a newly developed operating system designed to meet the user's every needs. To Theordore's surprise, a romantic relationship develops between him and his operating system. This unconventional love story blends science fiction and romance in a sweet tale that explores the nature of love and the ways that technology isolates and connects us all.[/PLOT][/MOVIE1][POSTER1]

[/POSTER1][/CONTAINER]

 

[TNGTony]

"Her" is definitely not what I expected. The movie is an engrossing study on the evolution of interpersonal relationships. It creates a rather claustrophobic view of the world even though it takes place among millions of people in a large city. The way the sound was edited and the video shot, it concentrates on how the protagonist of the story is experiencing his own personal reality. At the beginning it shows how lonely and melancholy he is even though he has friends and a social life. It almost beats you over the head to set the stage for what follows. It also shows how many around him are essentially the same; closed off to the outside world absorbed in their own thoughts, everyone's unfocused gaze aimed towards the ground.

This movie is the definition of a science fiction story the way REAL science fiction should be written. The story is still about the characters, and only the characters. The futuristic technology is, to the characters, nothing special. To the viewer of this near-future the technology is cool, but unobtrusive. It is only a tool to tell the story. And this movie uses the tools perfectly.

This movie is slow to develop. But it is a progression of events as we would experience over a long term relationship, not a "screw-ball comedy" or your typical romance drama. It is done in such a way that it keeps you engaged and caring about the characters. It humanizes the characters well.

I did have some issues with what I consider completely unnecessary foul language at times. Anyone that knows me knows that I have a good command of the less desired vocabulary and I am not shy about using it in the right surroundings. It was incongruous, sort of jarring and totally unnecessary. There were adult situations at times. Most of the time I thought they were a distraction, however one of the adult scenes was done amazingly well. As tasteful as these scene can be to start out, then literally leaving it up to the audiences imagination. I do mean literally, not figuratively here. It was a master stroke (as it were) by the director!
I don't want to give the wrong impression. There was nearly no nudity and the film was not riddled with adult language. It goes to show just how out of place I thought they were.
Would I watch this movie again? No. But I'm glad I was bored enough to watch it once.