this Subtle Jonze

Rating: 9/10 (5 April 2016)

It's her. It's « Her ». It's her. Whatever you may say, it is her. A movie about a relationship between the known and the unknown. The one you see and the one you hear. You have to take upon yourself, because this is not easy. Yet, the movie literally speaks for itself. Samantha may be speaking to Theodore, or maybe she is speaking to you.
Why? After all, it's just a film, those people are actors, these times aren't ours, so, why bother? Because Spike Jonze has just broken the fourth wall in the most beautiful way I've ever seen, and I hope I'm not the only one.
Samantha shares characteristics with any narrator's type, she allows the story to unveil, giving to the spectator an ability to understand and follow the course of it, and speaking about the purpose of the main character, a red line to keep in tracks and to achieve something, to realize something about himself, like in any movie. But, there is one slight difference : she's in love with the main character, and is loved by him. So, every time she speaks to Joaquim and he puts his earplug, we're forced to put it too, just like if we were in the middle of a phone call wave. Then, we're thrown right into this intimacy between a mourning and pathetic character and a joyful child, new born to this world, growing and curious and full of empathy. How would you feel? As a person, I was turned upside-down. How couldn't you bond with Samantha? That's very subjective, of course, but I can't figure it out. It's a character full of magic, brightly emphasized by Johansson's acting. In every word, she pushes emotion to its limit for us to picture the right image, and this had to be done because Samantha is invisible. As invisible as she is here, sitting in the back of your head and Twombly's. A little word for myself : I really enjoy Jonze's crew and himself choosing Scarlett for her voice rather than her body, which can be seen as a tiny criticism about aesthetics and plastic in movies. I think she's never been as appealing as in « Her », truly.
Then, there's the society. The action is set in a near future, one we could imagine, not a Star Wars fantasy. And it's nowhere near dystopia nor utopia : it just looks like now, but slightly different. And everything stands in this « slightly ». That's Jonze's magic : giving you feelings and ideas with very small but thorough and mastered details. Here, everything in the outside seems a bit foggy, yet the main color palette used for daylight is really close to Caucasian human skin tone, which is very far from the usual « futuristic » landscape. The world is believable, the environment doesn't try to show you its advanced technology, yet it exists : there's a freaking A.I. who's so realistic you can fall in love with her. It's all about feelings, really. I repeat myself, and you obviously know the movie revolves around the subject, but it's how every single aspect of its direction points toward this. It's so accurate it never falls wrong, no matter how it could have been. And believe me, there are a few moments where you ask yourself : even in real life, I would feel so embarrassed it would probably become ridiculous. In « Her », it's mostly beautiful, simple and I really feel like this relationship is more believable, more real than most of on-screen relationships you've seen until then. And there's only one character of two you can see. Challenge completed.