MOVIE: Her

Her: a non-traditional relationship movie.   This film works due to the excellent performance of Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore Twombly and the delightful voice of Scarlett Johansson.   When the movie commences, Theodore is a depressed male who is separated from his wife.   We meet the wife, Catherine, played by Rooney Mara, later in the film and after Theodore has commenced his new relationship with an operating system.  While the movie is specific as to location, Los Angeles, it is not specific as to time.   It does take place in a future which does not include LA being concerned with earthquakes as we only see NYC highrises.   The apartment where Theodore resides appears to be overly luxurious for a guy employed as a writer.  I was bothered by the lifestyle lived by Theodore not matching up with his employment but this is a minor criticism.   The movie has a small cast.   We meet Theodore’s supervisor Paul and his girlfriend.   Theodore has a friend named Amy (Amy Adams) who is also a neighbor and married.  The verbal interplay between Amy and her husband is presented in contrast to Theodore’s communication.   Besides Amy’s husband, a singular blind date and one additional female character, I think I’ve fully described the cast for this 125 minute movie.  The movie opens with a close up of Theodore’s face and Phoenix’s character is on screen for virtually the entire film.   Phoenix pulls it off.   The gimmick is the evolving relationship between Theodore and the operating system voice with the  name Samantha.    Theodore is able to speak with Samantha and reveal who he is in ways he never could with Catherine.   This is a film that every family psychologist and psychiatrist should see.   Because the operating system is programmed to favorably respond to the speaker without the speaker having any physical presences to react to, a sense of freedom to act and explore occurs.   An interesting twist is that Samantha becomes the concerned party over not being a physical entity while Theodore, for example, is comfortable with phone sex and being stimulated by voices (His and Samantha).  The movie was written and directed by Spike Jonze.    He deserves the Oscar nomination he received for best original screenplay but not the Oscar.   Jonze is  one of the most innovative of present filmmakers and this is a singularly unique film about human relationships.  This is also another film which is more enjoyable than I had anticipated from its trailer.