Tadpole thinks:
(30% spoiler, 100% my opinion)
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single girl in possession of a good imagination must be in want of Joaquin Phoexin.
In case you have been living under a rock, you know how excited I was for our movie of the month - Her. I even blogged about my anticipation! Not only is that cheesy opening line very applicable in this case, I'm a sucker for
* I can go on about romantic comedies all day. Please note that I call them romantic comedies instead of rom-coms, as I fear "rom-coms" may instantly remind you of formulaic chick flicks that I enjoy waaaay too much for my own good. But really, there are wonderful rom-coms out there which appeal to all tastes.
I saw Her a little more than a month ago. I was so excited that I attended a Valentine's Day special early screening. Repeat: Valentine's Day. Essentially a screening for couples? I very much enjoyed my one-on-one date with Joaquin, thanks for asking.
To be honest, I don't think I'm in a good position to discuss or dissect this movie. Before Theodora and me have decided to write about Her on here, I was going to do a review over at my personal blog. But IT WAS SO HARD TO WRITE ABOUT THIS MOVIE. It still is hard, maybe even more so now my hot date was five weeks ago. But I shall try, and persevere...
I like Her. Perhaps because I have to like it? After all, I have been excited for three months. But there don't seem to be reasons to like it other than:
1. JOAQUIN AS THEODORE TWOMBLY
2. the name Theodore Twombly
3. AMY ADAMS
4.
5. literally laugh-out-loud funny scenes, such as the scene with the foul-mouthed video game alien voiced by the director Spike Jonze and the scene with Amy showing her OS friend the easter egg in her video game
6. the ambient score. Well done, Arcade Fire and Owen Pallett (Y)
7. awesome production design
8. low constrast, paste colour scheme, the cinematography and etc...
9. cool premise... I hate how non-descriptive the word "cool" is but I have recently noticed I use it a lot in real-life conversation...
10. THE MOON SONG, but I was expecting a super romantic scene to go with this song but meh
So there are plenty of reasons to really like this movie. I'm positive that there are plenty more. But I was expecting myself to ADORE it. I hate having expectations. By the end of the movie, I didn't even feel "let down". I simply knew I had been having the wrong sort of expectations.
All along, I had been expecting a romantic movie that would make me swoon and go awwwwww and pretend I'm Samantha and that Joaquin is really flirting with me. But MAN, THIS MOVIE IS CREEPY. If you can look past its creepiness, it's witty, fun and pleasing to the eyes. If only you can. I may not be as open-minded as I would like to think, but there are moments that genuinely made me want to cringe, for example: The first time Theodore and Samantha "had sex". She said "I want you inside me", is that a metaphor or is it really an explicit/clichéd description of the act of sex? I don't know. But the creepy part is that scene was extremely breathy and then the scene went black but the sound was still there.
Then there are other issues:
1. I like an emotional man, but Theodore is too wussy sometimes it's unrealistic.
2. Samantha is a bitch that I couldn't care less for. Is it deliberate that we know she's a computer and not a human being who cares about feelings? But then they made her so sweet at first! Well, I guess there are lots of human arseholes out there who are worse than Samantha.
3. I DON'T LIKE THE ENDING. Why did it get so philosophical towards the end? And so suddenly? I know Samantha befriended Alan Watts but that philosophical twist was really sudden. Not a fan.
4. To get a futuristic cityscape, some parts of Her were shot in Shanghai. This means in Spike Jonze's head, LA will look like Shanghai a decade or so later. I'm rather proud. But this long scene set in the metro/tube/underground really gets on my nerves. On the train, the passengers all happen to be Chinese extras who broke the fourth wall. There are visible Chinese characters in the platform, then BOOM, the next shot it's LA again, with English signs and passengers of various ethnic backgrounds. Inconsistency annoys the crap out of the perfectionist me.
Perhaps if I had seen without any expectation or revisited it with a different set of expectations, I would have liked it more. Or perhaps Her is really just a cool-concepted aesthetically-alluring clever film that lures you into thinking not loving it is a problem. If so, perhaps I should play along...
Dear Her,
You're great. Very well-deserved Oscar Best Original Screenplay Winner. Everybody loves you. But I was expecting something else and you crept me out, even if only slightly.
It's not you, it's me.
Love,
Florence
Letter written by me, not Theodore Twombly from beautifulhandwrittenletters.com
-------------------------
Fish thinks:
Spoilers. Lots of them.
“It’s like I’m reading a book… and it's a book I deeply love. But I’m reading it slowly now. So the words are really far apart and the spaces between he words are almost infinite. I can still feel you… and the words of our story… but it’s in this endless space between the words that I’m finding myself now.”
This is one of my favorite lines in Her. The script is so beautifully written and deserves recognition. Fair enough, director and writer Spilke Jonze got the candy for his brilliant work.
When Florence first showed me the poster and the synopsis, Her immediately tops my watch-list. The plot sets in 2025 and tells the story of a lonely man Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), who bought an artificially intelligent operation system that has its consciousness and calls itself Samantha (Scarlett Johansson). The two console each other and become emotionally attached.
I would like to discuss the two aspects of the plot. First, the fact that Theodore writes personal love letters on behalf of clients for a living is saddening. Although Theodore’s proses are beautiful and this reveals his talented and sensitive character, it brings out the broad message that people nowadays have increased reluctance or inability to communicate. Theodore observes a special thing about his client’s tooth, quote it in the letter that is completed with the stretch of his imagination. Because of technology, the letters could be paradoxically designed as handwritten with a tailor-made font for each letter. Scenes of Theodore walking back home on the skyline and riding the metro are deliberately constituted of mumbling people deep in conversation with their OS or phones, inducing a sense of alienation. This highlights how technology widens the distance between people rather than to facilitate communication between them.
I am not entirely satisfied with the ending of the story. Instead of a revelation of Theodore’s character, it is Samantha who realizes that she belongs to a more profound reality and that true happiness could not be attained for both of them if she didn't leave. The ending features Theodore and his friend Amy (Amy Adams) leaning towards each other and looking at the skyscraper with a sense of loss. If it was Theodore who left Samantha, it would be better for he would have picked up by himself the courage to face his weaknesses and past, and to move on.
However, I appreciate the motif of the film. Jonze gives a revolutionary view on what is a relationship actually is. Love between humans and OS- how would you think about it? Theodore asks Amy if he is with Samantha because he is “not strong enough for a real relationship”. Amy answers, “You don't think it's a real relationship?” I would have perhaps acted like Theodore’s wife Catherine (Rooney Mara), incredulous about the absurd idea of love between humans and an intangible consciousness. Does love really require a physical form? While initially Theodore’s colleague laughs at the idea of love between an incompatible pair, he later supports Theodore and even goes on a double date with him. However, Samantha later finds a surrogate acting upon her will to make love with Theodore, and Theodore feels out of league because that is not Samantha. Jonze would like the audience to reflect upon their own definition of relationships and the constituents of it. Is true love not limited physically, and could succumb the challenges of discrimination, verdict and social norms? Or is it precisely the opposite?
Or, if I should quit romanticizing, Jonze tries highlight the escapist character of Theodore in the film, that he is incapable of “facing the real challenges of marriage”, quoting Catherine. Is he seeking justification from Samantha who would always “listens to you, understands you, and knows you”, according the OS One Advertisement? Indeed, Theodore has phone sex (“now I’m putting the dead kitten around your neck!”) and refuses to have a further relationship with his blind date (Olivia Wilde). When he cannot contact Samantha, he freaks out worrying that she’s gone, and questions her about her new friends. He wants attention but at the same time is unwilling to commit. When the blind date accuses him of being a creep, he almost believed in her. Jonze creates a multi-layered and contradictory character that resembles our yearning yet insecure human nature. We could see some bits of Theodore in ourselves.
The cinematography is, as Florence accurately described, “beautiful graphically”. Many sophisticatedly crafted concrete elements fit together and make the sci-fi film hybrid, with literary sensitivity and aesthetics flowing in its veins. I like the use of colors in the film. Instead of a cold futuristic setting with white translucent light and metallic automatic doors, there are vivid, solid colors flying on clothes and desks in the office, at the same time blending harmoniously with the more monotonous earthy background, creating a colorful and cozy cyber space fit for living.
Costume design – impeccable *dramatic hand gesture*. Theodore’s fashion is becoming an icon- the simplistic two pieces creates a casual yet poetic image with its slight twist of high-waist wool trousers. I am inspired by Amy Adam’s retro tomboy statement. The nude, tight and sleeved vest matched with a nude shirt together with ankle pants, oxford shoes get along very well with Adam’s chic updo hair that finishes with a touch of femininity.
Enough with the fashion blab, let’s get back to the film. Florence and I really like the soundtrack- we couldn't stop humming The Moon Song until one of us started on Let it Go. Florence said Karen O casually made the song up at her dining room table, which makes it more romantic than it is. Photographs by Arcade Fire is another of my favorite- the breezy melody commemorating a relationship that exceeds physical boundary is sad yet beautiful. In the scene on the beach when Samantha again plays another song she wrote for their relationship (Song on the beach which says it all), Theodore surveys the people around him, all of whom have their backs on him- signifying rejection and detachment to the awkward love between them. However, Theodore couldn't care less, and he closes his eyes to fully immerse into the sound.
To sum up, Her is one amazing film that discusses relationships and the desire to connect. My favorite scene is when Theodore closes his eyes and walk around the theme park with Samantha as the guide, where he tastes the exhilarating perspective of another person experiencing the world. He laughs freely and begins to open himself towards Samantha. Throughout the film Jonze tries to manifest to the audience the infinite possibilities of relationships, and in this scene, it liberates. Relationship isn’t just about happiness. It’s about discovery. Her will always be something in my heart.♥
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