What a gorgeous movie Her is! I enjoyed it so much… So poetic. Deep. I can see so much of us there (“us” as in human beings). It all makes so much sense. At least it did to me. I went to have lunch with my family and, as we talked about the film, I learned there were people who didn’t enjoy it. Thought it was too slow. I loved it. Especially the pauses. The calm. The time between every breath. Every sigh. Every feeling.
Joaquin Phoenix (one of my favorite actors ever!) is brilliant once again. He plays a depressed letter ghostwriter who’s having a hard time getting over a breakup. Think of a melancholic guy, unhappy with the world, living in autopilot… That’s him.
Or at least it was, until he bought a new operating system for his computer, provided with AI that reads/interprets its owner (voice tone, sighs, breath, responses…) in order to find out how to be useful to him.
The system has a name. Yep. Name and voice. It’s called Samantha and the voice is none less than (the magnificent) Scarlett Johansson’s. Samantha, or OS (call it what you want! ;)) not only puts together her owner’s virtual life, but starts affecting his real life as well. A relationship unfolds. Yep, between a human being and an operating system. What? Yeah, I know.
Sounds bizarre, right? It is. But it makes an awful lot of sense. And Scarlett managed to surpass all my expectations and be more desirable than ever without even making a physical appearance. It’s just her voice. You have to watch it in order to understand it. I won’t even try to explain…
It received five nominations to the Oscars 2014: best picture, best original screenplay, best original score, best original song (The Moon Song, by Karen O) and best production design.
Joaquin Phoenix wasn’t nominated, but he nailed it. Perfect. Boy, do I like this guy… I think he deserved to be among the top five. Same for Scarlett. Two geniuses. Amazing encounter. Enticing without even sharing a scene. Wow. Congratulations are in order for both. Amy Adams is also pretty good playing a more ordinary character, something a bit different from what she’s been doing lately. I love to see her characters unfold. How far she can reach. And this time she brought less of it. More pauses. Less elements in the composition. More simplicity. Naturality. Lightness. I like that.
And it makes us think… Reflect… Will we end up like that? Will social interaction become unbearable in the future? Will we become so unsympathetic to each other? I don’t know… So many things became clearer… There were many lines I felt like writing down and using in our chronicles later! So, yeah, I really liked it!
What about you? Have you seen it?
What did you think?
Less than a week until the Oscars!
Final countdown…
