Her (2013) — Read Along
“The past is just a story we tell ourselves”
For Cristina, (she likes Joaquin Phoenix!) a probable agent of chaos living in a secret location off the coast of Canada and who always leaves such warm, honest and human reactions to my blog articles.
May your God bless you, thanks.
“The past is just a story we tell ourselves”
Following his previous collaborations with Charlie Kaufman and Dave Eggers, “Her” was Spike Jonze’s first solo screenplay and one which earned him his first Oscar success in 2014 for Best Original Screenplay. “Her” is certainly original in every sense and equally highly prescient in the overriding themes it tackles of an ever increasing technologically connected world but one in which human beings are more and more disconnected from ourselves, each other, and of the day to day reality of the real world and of our “marriage” to laptops, computers and smart phones that despite the great advantages these pieces of technology provide, also erect tangible barriers that these technological advances also create. But despite our, and the film’s, over dependency on the technology that surrounds and envelops us, “Her” has a real human story at it’s heart, two brilliant central performances set amid vivid and crystal clear cinematography from Director of Photography Hoyte Van Hoytema and a beautiful accompanying musical soundtrack from Canadian Indie rock band Arcade Fire.
The film is set in a near future world but rather than flying cars being the overall signifier of a said near future it is technologically driven and rather than today’s fast becoming obsolete practice of interacting with busy fingers on a laptop or smart phone screen, everything is voice activated with audio directly into the ears via a smart ear bud. Life in “Her” is seemingly familiar to today, however in Spike Jonze’s view of a near future many people have invested in a brand new, all purpose “O/S” or “Operating System” that they remain connected to throughout the day. Thus people of the near future seem to be constantly talking to themselves however they’re connected to, and interacting with, their O/S which, the developers are keen to reinforce in their advertisements, is “not just an Operating System, but a consciousness”. The O/S actively develops and evolves with human interaction and experience, quickly becoming more and more human like while blurring the lines between flesh and blood human beings and a complex computer operating system.
Fresh from his Oscar nominated performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s magnificent “The Master”, Joaquin Phoenix turns in yet another pitch perfect performance in a leading role here as “Theodore”, a highly regarded love letter writer (“Letter Writer 612”) for BeautifulHandwrittenLetters.com. He may regard his pieces as “just letters” however it’s quickly and evidently established that Theodore knows the recipients of his letters very well indeed having written on behalf of the same people for many years.
Casting aside the disconnected aspect of this practice (for human disconnection runs as a constant theme throughout the film) it’s more evident that Theodore himself is disconnected from the world, ostensibly stuck in his semi futuristic cubicle dictating love letters that albeit heartfelt, are simply a daily task that leaves him somewhat unfulfilled. Theodore is clearly depressed and together with a feeling of being disconnected and distant from the world he is struggling to adapt to single life with an impending divorce on the horizon from his best friend and childhood sweetheart “Catherine” (Rooney Mara). Through intermittent flashbacks we discover a happy, content and playful Theodore enjoying life and marriage but this is far from the present day picture painted of him. Alone and lonely in his sumptuous apartment overlooking the city, his distant stares of longing are evident constantly as he searches for meaning in his life as well as companionship and love. His small circle of friends include his obvious soul mate and long term platonic friend “Amy” (Amy Adams), her husband “Charles” (Matt Letscher) and work friends “Paul” (Chris Pratt) and “Lewman” (Luka Jones) but Theodore is desperately lonely, disconnected and desperate and with his head turned by the advertisements for the interactive Operating Systems, he purchases a new friend!
With the impending divorce and only Amy for a real friend in which to confide, Theodore slips further and further away from the real world and into an interactive computer world with “Samantha” (voiced by Scarlett Johannsson) and despite not believing “I’m having this conversation with my computer!” he slowly falls in love with his computer Operating System.
In a film of such few main characters, two characters and performances stand out and as alluded to previously Joaquin Phoenix is magnificent yet again. The character actor of his generation, he just infuses every character he plays with such verve that he defies you to look away from the screen and dare to miss any part of his performance(s) and again here he takes a somewhat indifferent and exhausted character and injects him with such love and affection that we overlook his faults and frailties. Theodore is such a layered character, disconnected, indifferent, unhappy and feeling that life has almost passed him by and that he’ll “never feel anything new” again, but he’s also joyous, self deprecating, selfless and kind. Brilliantly written by Spike Jonze and a character magnificently realised (yet again) by Joaquin Phoenix.
Similarly, Amy Adams continues to produce character performances that surprise and delight in equal measure as she follows her recent excellent performances in “American Hustle” and “The Master” with a nuanced portrayal of Amy here. Stifled by a selfish and self absorbed husband, she is clearly Theodore’s soul mate and friend in need since becoming firm friends in college. They may not be romantically linked but they’re almost mirror characters in a way and never more presciently than Amy’s scathing, yet amusing outburst that love is “like a socially acceptable form of insanity”.
How would she feel then if she discovered that her best friend had fallen in love with his computer Operating System?
“Her” was lauded at the 2014 Oscars with three further nominations in addition to Spike Jonze’s win for Best Original Screenplay. The film itself was nominated for Best Film of the Year and although Director of Photography Hoyte Van Hoytema was not individually recognised for his achievements it is to him that a large part of the credit must be paid for producing such a clean, clear, crisp and visually stunning near future. In league with Director Jonze they have both envisioned a near future akin to today’s experience but with a heightened sense of the all pervasive technological advances in a cleaner, brighter world. The colour palette is bright, the visuals pin prick sharp and the film gains much from Van Hoytema’s brilliantly captured skylines, sunsets, sunrises and wide angled cityscape shots. KK Barrett was also deservedly nominated for his production design which brilliantly complimented the visual ascetics of the near future vision of the Director and two further Oscar nominations were awarded for the film’s wonderful musical score accompaniment. Firstly, Will Butler (of Arcade Fire fame) and Owen Pallett were nominated for their original music written directly for a film and their compositions of gentle string, piano and mellotron ballads are simply beautiful and the soundtrack is a pure joy and highly recommended. Secondly, “Moon Song” (written by Director Jonze and Karen O) appears twice in the film and was rightly nominated for Best Original Song and is a beautifully moving piece of music that also accompanies the film’s closing credits.
“Her” is a highly original film in every sense, tackling highly prescient issues whilst shining a light on a disconnected future that is fast arriving in spades accompanied by a brilliant soundtrack and two stellar central performances. The film is often melancholic but please don’t overlook either the joyous nature intermingled here or indeed the comedic twists provided by a horrendous blind date, a foul mouthed Alien (voiced by the Director) or Theodore’s desperate use of an internet chat line.
Just don’t mention cats, ok?
“Her” was dedicated to James Gandolfini, Harris Savides, Maurice Sedak and Adam Yauch. Actors, writers, film makers but more importantly “friends” of Director Jonze, all of whom died during the making of the film.
2021 Postscript: This article was originally published exactly 7 years and 15 days ago. Read “Her” again and shudder at where we were technologically 7 years ago, and then tell Alexa to play you some Radiohead whilst you check your Facebook feed. See you in another 7 years!
"Her" (2013) - original article
"Spike Jonze - 4 twisted love stories for your consideration" - original article
"The Essential Film Reviews Collection" - Vol.7
Now dear reader you have a very exciting choice ahead of you!
You can either:
(a) Read my entire review of “Her” again via the first link above but this time with an altogether different opening and original pictures.
(b) Treat yourself to any and/or all of the first 4 films in the career of director Spike Jonze and my spoiler free love-in treatment of them all.
(c) Watch either of my Youtube or Rumble channel videos as I read my own spoiler free review of the film (@TheBlackfordBookClub), hence the “Read Along” moniker.
or (d) Treat yourself to any combination of the above or even (e) disappear to pastures new within our collective electrical Matrix of doom.
Oh, and (f) There’s also a link to Volume 7 of my “Essential Film Reviews Collection” (where you’ll find “Her” among many, many more) packaged in my e-book and Kindle series on Amazon.
All 7 volumes are FREE to read if you have an Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” package.
Bless you for reading.