If there is a movie that you shouldn’t miss this month, it is indeed Spike Jonze original story. HER is a sweet, smart and original movie that marks you as a reference of our time. You will be pleased to be bring into a futurist Los Angeles but so close to our own everyday life. So close to our feeling concerns.
With Spike Jonze as writer and director (Where the Wild Things Are, Being John Malkovich), you will be just amazed by his quality work on the main concept as well as the attention to details. Dealing with a young man falling in love with his operating system, you are paradoxically closer to the humanity of the characters and how beautiful and complex it is. The irony of the situation is never pathetic nor caricatural, so balanced, that the time you realize how many layers there are, you will be already moved by the whole. It is the impression you have when you face a movie so atypical that it belongs only to itself. There is no taboo, no trash, no over drama, just life, loneliness, love and friendship; what make human relationship so special.
Furthermore, the movie gets very singular thanks to the amazing and original performances. First, you will be pleased to see Joaquin Phenix, as the leading role; a role his talent deserves. Plus, what about the choice to put one of the most coveted female physique of the industry just into a sensual voice? With Scarlett Johansson, Spike Jonze dared and for good. Using the power of imagination of his audience, you experience Theodore (Joaquin Phenix) search for love, scream for life. There are true audacious love/ sexe scenes which make the theatrical experience so unique. Actually, you witness something so out of the box but reaching you own life so accurately. Genius!
Unrestrainedly, the movie works in his whole. What to say about the fabulous work on the photography and the decors. There is no judgmental elements you could pick to accuse this society vision. It is how it is, you have to focus on the people. This choice makes everything suspending in its time and aesthetic; the time the characters are looking for themselves. From a 3D video game to a skyscraper landscape, you are even in the intimacy of the futurist world as its globalized breadth. With a very bright photography, it is a very peaceful mood contrasted with the colorful digital environnement.
I could have written much more, such the movie is rich. But because it is as generational as personal you have to experience it on your own. When I went out of the session, I felt like I have just seen “my” LOST IN TRANSLATION; the one which has integrated the globalization frenzy updated with the digital evolution but still with the same urge to be loved.
