"-What do you love most about Samantha?
-Oh God! She's so many things, I guess that's what I love most about her, you know, she just isn't one thing. She's so much.. larger than that"
This conversation is what "HER" is about, a dreamy sequence of unrealistic high expectations, expectations that are based on nothing but desperation. Spike Jonze took four years since "Where the Wild Things Are" to come back with his masterpiece, his best picture. It took him 10 years in the making since his divorce from Sofia Coppola.
The great attention to detail is bigger than life, starting with Samantha Morton being replaced by Scarlett Johansson mainly due to the latter's sultry voice which added a depth of character to a very complicated character, in my humble opinion Scarlett's best because she is often praised for her looks, this picture didn't include her visually on the screen yet she gave an outstanding performance, and filming mostly in Shanghai to reflect the futuristic look of the near future, and composing the music himself with his personal friend Karen O to bring to us "The Moon Song".
The film's theme revolves around escapism like the earth revolves around the sun, and how one could get sucked into escaping reality by getting into something bigger and deeper, escape a heartbreak by moving steadily into a bigger heartbreak, each character was escaping something different and dealing with it differently, very obvious Theodore (played by Joaquin Phoenix) was escaping the responsibility of dating somebody who has demands, somebody with wants and thoughts, and according to his ex-wife -Catherine- (played by Rooney Mara) he loved Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) because she was safe, wasn't real, she wasn't complicated, her only purpose was making him happy, she couldn't make big demands on him, if she made any at all. Something Theodore realizes at the end when he accepts the blame for the failure of their marriage and sends a message to Catherine. Based on the small window that was provided to get to see Catherine since the whole film was narrated from Theodore's point of view making the narration somewhat unreliable. Catherine who has tempestuous nature was escaping Theodore's failure to contain her, obviously showing she outgrew him and he no longer could provide the transparency and honesty she needs from the relationship, drawing parallel with his relationship with Samantha, which came crashing down with the revelation it lacked emotional openness and honesty. Catherine is somebody who although didn't get lots of space to express the character she was portrayed to be ambitious, smart, evolving, moving forward VS Theodore who's somebody who'd definitely romanticize the past, and that romantic nature was shown as catering to his emotional side and working as somebody who'd write intimate letters instead of people.
Moreover, the movie has one strict message; you can't outrun your problems, which was shown clearly when Theodore decided to abandon the real type of relationships in favor of Samantha, he got sucked into that type of virtual relationship clearly shown in his blind date with an unnamed girl (played by Olivia Wilde) and failure to engage in sexual intercourse with the girl Samantha picked as a medium to have sex with Theodore. These two scenes, they speak volumes on how Theodore's attempt to escape heartbreak after his marriage failed actually sabotaged his life to a farther extent.
In terms of cinematography, Jonze relied heavily on natural lighting to create low contrast throughout the movie, and using saturated natural and colorful tones to exhibit the mood, and these change in colors by the end to warmer, yet darker demonstrates how the revelation that he fell in love with somebody who pulled him lower than rock bottom brought him back to square one.
Moreover, it was very smooth of Jonze to use Theodore's body language and facial expressions as statements describing his emotions, you didn't need a narrating voice telling you how he feels or what's running through his head. And close shots and frames were used to manifest the emotional highlighting of all the characters, showing how vulnerable and emotional and intimate every scene was, and on the contrary, using long shots to manifest Theodore's own isolation; the kind of isolation he has regardless of having numerous friends shown in the movie.
When it comes to sound design, ambient and soft low tempo soundtrack was dominating the screen often going unnoticed, just subconsciously adding to the mood, somewhat used strategically to tell a story or create a mood in scenes like at the beach or when Samantha composes a piano piece for Theodore.
In character development, "Her" doesn't evolve much, it's about an emotional journey and discovering that what's real will always be better than following a fake fantasy, even if it makes you happy. With pretty much Theodore evolving, it's clearly fixated on showing you how he was simply catching up the whole time with his surrounding, eventually having a heart-to-heart conversation with his friend Amy (played by Amy Adams), and writing a letter to his ex-wife and giving himself closure.
In conclusion, "Her" is not a movie about an uncommon love story, it is a movie about escaping, about hope, about finding one's true self, it isn't one thing, it is so much.. larger than that. It was not driven by a plot, rather the themes of hopeless romanticism, escapism, hope, and compelling new starts. It derives you away from the primitive theme of a love story between a lonely man and an artificial intelligence, it makes you fall into the orbit of an existential crisis and reflect back on your life and think about how does it feel like to love someone, it is just so much.. larger than a movie.
And I think, in my humble opinion, "Her" is the kind of movie you never know you need but once you watch it, you'll fall in love with it.
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