Joaquin Phoenix…isolated, but not for long
“HER” My rating: A- (Opens wide on Jan. 10)
120 minutes | MPAA rating: R
The sentient computer — the mechanical brain that becomes self aware — has been with us for many years now (perhaps most famously in the person of “2001’s” HAL 9000). But writer/director Spike Jonze’s “Her” pushes that idea in new and wonderful directions.
Along the way it becomes the best film of 2013.
In the near future — so near you can’t categorize the film as science fiction — a computer operating system is developed that so perfectly imitates human thought and emotion as to make the iPhone’s Siri seem like a grunting Neanderthal.
Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) is a lonely romantic. Lonely because he and his wife (Rooney Mara) are divorcing — though Tehodore cannot bring himself to sign the papers. Romantic because his day job is writing heartfelt letters to strangers.
He works for a company that, for a fee, will compose personal letters to family members, dearly beloveds, friends and acquaintances. Apparently in this near future most personal written correspondence is limited to texting abbreviatons and emoticons. Some folks will pay big bucks for a well-written, sincere and “handwritten” letter (actually, a computer provides the appropriate font and coughs it out of a laser printer).
Theodore is a master of this old-fashioned form of communication — which only makes his sterile personal life all the more ironic.
Butler's Cinema Scene 