‘The past is just a story we tell ourselves…’
This is not at all an original premise, the idea of a man falling in love with something not human is all the rage at the moment with Lars and the Real Girl and Ruby Sparks both garnering plenty of acclaim. The idea of a machine becoming self aware is, of course, as old as time ( 2001: A Space Odyssey, Terminator 2 and many many others). Her is a very serious movie. Weird Science it ain’t. Spike Jonze goes to great lengths to let us know that this should be taken very seriously. This is important damn it. Not many laughs or moments of light relief just lots of very deep and meaningful dialogue between the, to be fair, excellent Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson (who also does well to make what is essentially just a voice into a full, fleshed out character).
The dialogue is poetically impressive in parts but it isn’t really enough to carry a full movie. The general ‘be wary of where technology is taking society’ message is both unoriginal and too vague to really add anything, so Her ends up being a trumped up character study and yet the supporting characters don’t have enough screen time or charisma to turn a decent quirky flick into something better.
I was also really excited about the prospect of Arcade Fire providing the soundtrack, but that too is quite disappointing and forgettable. In terms of the Oscars, I certainly would not begrudge Her winning best original screenplay (for which it is nominated) but it shouldn’t come close in anything else.