Film: Her

GENRE: Drama, Romance

RATING: 14A for language and sexual content
RUNTIME: 2 hour and 6 minutes

STARRING: Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line, Gladiator, Signs)

Scarlett Johansson (The Avengers), Amy Adams (American Hustle)

DIRECTOR: Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation)

WRITER: Spike Jonze (Where The Wild Things Are)

PLOT: A recently separated man starts a relationship and falls in love with his newly purchased operating system.

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 Well, that was interesting. Jonze explores love and relationships in a very unique way that is sometimes beautiful, sometimes misplaced and sometimes creepy. If you’ve seen his other stuff, you probably won’t be too surprised.

2 There are a couple phone sex scenes that are incredibly awkward to watch. Sure, you might not see much but the audio is plenty. Don’t watch this with your mother.

3 The acting is quite strong in this film. Phoenix does an impressive job emoting to just a voice. And Johansson is pretty captivating as the voice of the operating system. She definitely puts Siri to shame.

4 The fashion in the near future is horrendous. Lots of stripes, basic earth tones and high-waisted pants. Why the throwback to the forties?  

5 While the concept is original, the story plays out a little long. I like my slow dramatic movies to be 90 minutes thank you.

RECOMMENDATION: Watch by yourself if curious

UPCOMING REVIEWS: Labor Day