Director Spike Jonze is an immensely talented dude but
through his body of work his talent has always been obscured by his
collaborations. Once known as a music video guy, he helped Weezer and The Beastie
Boys (among others) rise to prominence in the Mtv 90’s. His filmography is just
as eclectic, directing “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation” for the avant-surrealist
writer Charlie Kaufman, and on the other end of the cultural spectrum, he has
produced and been closely involved with Mtv’s ”Jackass”, as well as its feature-length
fratsploitation mondo-comedies. Before his most recently released film “Her”,
he also adapted Maurice Sendak’s children’s book “Where the Wild’s Things Are”.
What I mean to point out in all of this is
that Spike Jonze, as a filmmaking auteur, despite the overall quality of his
work, has rarely been given the credit he deserves as a singular talent unto
himself because of the power of his industry associations. However, with “Her”,
Jonze captures his own ideas about love, technology and the future and what
comes out is not only a spectacularly realized, wholly original sci-fi milieu,
but also a tender story about human relationships.
Joaquin
Phoenix is a somewhat elusive and distant actor and has spent his latter years
widening the gap between himself and the audience; first with his ill-conceived
mockumentary and then to much better effect in last year’s “The Master.” Here
he brings us in significantly closer as Theodore Twombly, a lonely love-letter
and greeting card copywriter living in the not-so-distant, but
distant-enough-to-be-relatively-advanced Los Angeles. In an attempt to get over
the somewhat recent separation from his ex-wife (Rooney Mara) and the early
rumblings of inevitable divorce, Theordore decides to upgrade his operating
system to a new, fully functioning and autonomous artificial intelligence named
Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). Unlike his command functioned OS
before, Samantha not only checks his emails and organize his work papers, but she
also learns his sense of humor, gives him useful guidance about his personal
life and eventually she even begins to develop real and reciprocated feelings
towards her owner.
This
story deals in a high-concept that is easy to scoff at or dismiss as a wispy,
digital “I Dream of Genie” male fantasy. But Jonze approaches the idiosyncratic
plot details and his genre conceits with heart-breaking sincerity, a complete
lack of judgment to or from his characters, and within the world he builds he
displays an enviable hope for the future. Skynett paranoia or the fear of
robo-fascism is never even hinted at. In fact, when Theodor’s office co-worker played
by Chris Pratt, or his old college buddies played by Amy Adams and Matt Letscher
learn of his fully dimensional romance with Samantha, they show happiness and
support for their friend.
This foundation
of warmth and humanity is thoroughly embraced as it sets the stage for an
emotionally complex and thoughtful final act that expands the parameters of
science fiction and satisfies its character’s arc; a feat not easily achieved
by even the simplest of movie structures, let alone a wacky genre-blending
narrative like this.
“Her” is techo-centric, visually concerned
piece of metaphor that also has a recognizable beating heart. The film’s environments
are beautifully portrayed with a production design and cinematography so
handsome and atmospheric that it has immediately been added to my short-list of
movie-worlds I wish I could live in. But
even more remarkable is that it bothers to tackle big ideas, such as the loss
of humanity and conenctiveness in our modern technological era and deeper existential themes about what it is that makes a person
a person, but it never does so in an intellectually pushy or posturing way.
Instead, Jonze holds our hand and relays these human truths like a bittersweet
bedtime story.
Originally Published in the Idaho State Journal/ Jan-2014
No comments:
Post a Comment