Her is flawed

Rating: 6/10 (19 January 2014)

Her is one of those movies that I thought I would and could like, given its unorthodox plot, but I found it to be sad and dull and not so much invigorating as depressing and numbing. It does feature fine performances, but the promising premise quickly winds its way through predictable scenarios and foreseeable outcomes.
Joaquin Phoenix, doing his best Jude Law impression, plays Theodore Twombley, a man who writes "handwritten" letters for clients in what's probably the future. He gets the basic idea from the client and then goes to town, dictating his letter to his computer, which renders the letter in nice neat cursive for the recipient. The letters are sincere and heartfelt, and Theodore is very good at his job.
When we first meet Theodore, he's a lonely, mopey guy, still recovering from a separation from his wife (Rooney Mara) a year prior, even though the divorce papers haven't yet been signed. His friends Amy (Amy Adams) and Charles worry about him; Theodore never really goes out. Then he sees an ad for a new operating system for the home, a system with not only a personality but also the ability to grow and learn.
Since he's looking for some companionship anyway, he purchases the new system and installs it. The system has the voice of Scarlett Johansson and names herself Samantha. Soon, Samantha is best-friends-for-life with Theodore; she helps him to stay organized and focused, plays the role of supportive friend, offers advice and conversation, all things that Theo really needs. But, since she is an operating system designed to evolve, she begins to want more out of existence. She, like Data from Star Trek and countless other not-human characters, wants to know what it's like to be human, to have both a body and feelings.
This may seem like an odd relationship (and it is), but it's more normal in this pseudo-future than it is in real life. People left and right have personalized operating systems. You think it's still strange to see someone talking to themselves? You check yourself and realize they're using Bluetooth for something, right? Now imagine most people doing that, only instead of an obvious Bluetooth headset there's only a tiny earpiece. It's a little counterintuitive, in a way: a movie that's all about getting a man to get out and enjoy life more does so by isolating him from the world, just him and his operating system (in portable, iPhone form). Come to think of it, I can't remember seeing Theodore talking on the phone with anyone other than Samantha.
It isn't long before Theodore and Samantha realize they have very strong feelings for one another. Again, not really as weird as it would be today, as so many people apparently do date their operating systems in Theo's world. He's soon taking Samantha places, at her behest, and they live and love and play and laugh and so on, just as if it were a humans- only relationship. That they do hit some rough patches points again to Samantha's ability to grow - to become more human, really. But how human can she be? More human than human?
This is the first movie that Spike Jonze has both written and directed. That fact may have no bearing on the pacing on the film, but I include it just in case. I thought that the movie moved excruciatingly slow, as it were filmed in a dreamy fog, or a foggy dream, or a nightclub. This is a character study, and a sci-fi one at that, so one would expect deliberate pacing. But in Her, I felt that the story moved even more slowly than that. The camera sometimes lingered for several seconds on a close-up shot of a character, usually Theodore. The setup for scenes (for example, Theo's blind date with Olivia Wilde) takes longer than the scenes themselves, which means a lot of exposition and a lot of talking.
That's not a bad thing if your movie has some profound wisdom to share or if the methodical pacing is offset by actual movement and plot development, but neither one of those criteria apply here. We do get strong performances by Phoenix, Adams, and Johannson, but in the end it feels like nothing really happened. Sure, Theo has changed a little, but we're left in the dark as to how much and if his life has truly improved.