Her

HitFix

What do you hey when you combine romance, sci-fi and comedy? Her. Spike Jonze's film is essentially a two hour social commentary on our addiction to technology, specifically our smartphones. In Her, a middle-aged divorcee named Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) downloads a new Operating System, whose voice is sensually provided by Scarlett Johansson. After reading a book on naming in less than a second, the operating system tells Theodore it's decided on Samantha.

Samantha's artificial intelligence causes her to want to learn about society, communication, and Theodore at an alarmingly exponential rate. The two become inseparable, which worries his neighbor Amy (Amy Adams) and frustrates his ex-wife Catherine (Rooney Mara) - both of whom are portrayed by talented actresses that bring our focus to them but unfortunately don't appear on screen as much as I would have liked.

Her had enormous potential, and although I enjoyed the film, it could have been better, and by extension more unique. Yes, Mr. Jonze, I get the message of your movie. Technology can't replace human relationships, we see our smartphones as unique while other users "bond" with their mobile devices in the same way, and when we lose our technology, we're left to realize how valuable our human relationships are. That pretty much sums Her up.

While I was intrigued by the developing relationship of Samantha and Theodore, their spats, their sexual encounters and their long sleepless nights together, Jonze could have gotten the valuable underlying messages of the movie across better if he had treated the movie as an experiment, spending equal time comparing the experimental relationships with the placebo relationships.

Consider Theodore's relationship with Samantha as experimental. How can we fully understand Theodore, his past, and why he is so drawn to this technological companion if we can't compare him to the placebo - his natural human relationships. Aside from a few flashbacks, Catherine doesn't share much on-screen time with her ex, so how can we know what he was like before? Also, Theodore spends far too little time with Amy, and Amy Adams' performance will leave you begging for more.

Instead of comparing these relationships, Her is mostly composed of Joaquin Phoenix sitting in an empty room and pausing for where Scarlett Johansson would later dub her dialogue. With a better balance of exposing us to these three different relationships (obviously giving slightly more focus to Samantha), I feel like the movie's messages would came across more clearly and would have made Her worthwhile.

Phoenix conveys Twombly's anti-social vulnerability admirably, while Adams makes the best of her limited screen exposure, and Johansson is truly convincing in her vocal role. They alone are enough to carry the film, and the script helps them out in a lot of places. It could have helped them out much more had Jonze written a more memorable story instead of delivering repetitive scenes to thread out his idea until he was out of string.

Rating: 3.5/5