Pretty But No Consciousness

Rating: 7/10 (28 December 2013)

A pretty film (Spring color palette), well directed, well acted, and a contemporary topic to think about, but ultimately left me flat, almost like video games or chat rooms with avatars instead of real life challenges and relationships. Spike Jonze does a great job directing, using extreme closeups, many of Joaquin Phoenix's face, and shots of images to show past memories. Phoenix using his talents well: he's likable, and even geeky enough, but not too much. Scarlett Johansson should get a special Oscar for her voice part. We seem to have needed a film about artificial consciousness, which calls to mind Frankenstein, but I still had a need for the protagonists to be changed in the course of the narrative, for me that didn't and that's where the film fails.