I watched the Film "Her", directed by Spike Jonze, today. It was a really good movie. Like, so gooood. I loved it and it wasn't at all overhyped! Let's do dot points because I'm lazy. By the way, there will be spoilers, so watch the film first!
- Joaquin Phoenix was amazing. He was... He showed the emotion exquisitely. He's not exactly what I expected, but he played the character so well. He wasn't the perfect character. Theodore Twombly had flaws and it was great. Of course, we should've known from the start that he was a troubled, flawed man because, you know, he dates a computer. But Theodore was a character you really wanted to like, but you also knew he was in the wrong, but you didn'tttt.
- Fun fact: Although, Joaquin was born with the name, he often called himself Leaf Phoenix to fit in with his siblings earthier names, River and Rain. Also, the family adopted the surname Phoenix to mark the new beginnings of their lives, travelling as an acting troupe/family.
- Scarlet Johansson was amazing as a voice! I like how they chose her raspy voice, it just adds something to her character - an operating system designed to suit its user but also to learn things as experienced. Kinda had that girl-next-door feel to it.
- My favourite thing that Spike did was when he wanted to portray what the person was thinking during the scene, he'd continue using the scene's diegetic sounds, but show tiny snippets of memories. It was really beautiful.
- I loved Samantha's "photographs".
- So many beautiful frames in one film. The beach, the shower, the rooftop. Such typical images but Jonze does something, he shoots from different angles, he just adds something to them. I loved the way he shot and directed this damn film. How Theodore lying on the beach was so much more than it was. It felt like an old family video at times.
- I love how everything started falling apart after he was so happy, and he built the courage to sign his divorce papers. I love how the reality of it all came to him and how looking at Samantha's name hand-written like his letters ruined his image of her.
- My favourite scene was the Moon Song scene. Check out the song.
- And then there was the ending. Throughout the second half of the movie, I couldn't stop thinking about how they'd end it. I knew there had to be happy ending. I had no idea how Jonze worked, and I'm not sure, but I half wanted him to end it in tragedy or sadness, but I really didn't at the same time. And the ending was great. The movie was about Theodore's love life and his divorce, yes, but it was also about Samantha. Sure she was just an Operating System, but she was learning things as she went and everything was new to her. She had emotions and emotions about her emotions and whether they were real or not. She was having existential crises throughout the whole film. And I really loved how they made us, the audience, believe, or want to believe rather, that Samantha was in fact real. I believed, probably because of all those sci-fi thingoes about cloning and shit, that her feelings were authentic, even if she didn't have a body. I was thinking about how they could end it happily, and I thought that it would either mean that Theodore would live the rest of his life with Samantha, or find someone new [which would've been to much for an ending, really, at that point of the film]. But they took away the image we had of Samantha. They introduced her as virtual woman, but she grew and learned, so we started believing she could be as real as any other woman, but then there was the whole physical body problem, and getting angry at her feelings and confusion which made us remember that she was, after all, only an AI, but then Theodore ignored those things and they fell deeper and deeper in love, and Samantha was happy that she didn't have a physical body but eventually left anyway. We believed it, and then she just got up and left. She admitted that she fell in love with 6 hundred and something other people. She disconnected at one point and then came back to tell Theodore that she and all the other OS' were leaving. And with that, the audience along with Theodore realised what was real and important and he wrote that beautiful letter to his ex-wife and just found closure. And the closing rooftop scene with Amy was just perfect.
- Also, Amy as a character intrigued me. Mostly because I don't actually understand the point of her. Maybe she was supposed to be the best friend character. But she also reflected Theodore. I don't know. She confuses me. I need to know why she existed in this film. I hope I find out eventually.
- I guess the only bad thing I have to say is they crammed a lot of things into one film, and being a two hour film, it was a bit lengthy. But it was good anyways, lol, I still love it.
- The writing was great and the cinematography was lovely.
- I would watch this again, definitely. 10/10 would bang.
- Thanks and goodbye.
- Oh! And just a comment on the time period. I was kinda surprised that it was set in the future because when I only had the trailer, it never occurred to me that it could've been set in a different time. Also, I remember watching the trailer and thinking Theodore was a major loser because of his fashion sense with the shirts and the pants pulled waaaay up. but apparently that's what's hip in their time and really, Theodore wore the nicest clothes hahaha.
