Very old basic sci-fi concept spun out cheaply with no fresh insight

Rating: 3/10 (8 February 2014)

Take one of the oldest sci-fi concepts (human interaction, even love, with artificial intelligence; so obvious - bordering on trite - that TV shows from THE BIG BANG THEORY to BONES have all made effective comedy sketch subplots out of it recently), add a promising writer-director like Spike Jonze (ne. Adam Spiegel) who has built a reputation as a promising light weight intellectual with films from BEING JOHN MALKOVICH to ADAPTATION and WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE and mix in a respectable if second tier cast headed by a solid but charisma-challenged Joiquin Phoenix and you'd think Jonze's HER would be a safe, nearly can't miss commercial product. Far too safe, as it turns out, and a commercial miss that looked very much like a mile to this viewer.
Jonze's team started off cleverly spending their production money on location shoots in ultra modern cities like Shanghai to create a look just enough like a not immediately recognizable western city only a few years in the future with JUST the right degree of familiarity to emphasize that while working with a sci-fi mind set, the film is based in technology not that different from that which we already have. They are less successful in costuming the central characters in what looks like cheap pickings from the nearest Goodwill thrift store (presumably on the theory that the best way to look forward inexpensively is to look back).
The rest of the film follows on that path. Phoenix's Theodore Twombly, a "writer" living the logical extension of a modern "service" society where the most minor personal tasks are hired out, is the first of a number of the film's characters who, dealing with a failed relationship, finds solace in a personality created specifically to fit his emotional needs (exceptionally well voiced by Scarlett Johansson). Once one gets past the truism that a real marriage is about much more than sex - that it is, in the long run, about the enrichment of life through the mating of two compatible MINDS, there is nothing particularly shocking or even surprising about this, and Jonze is able to come up with NO fresh insights or twists to the situation.
Following the usual "Midas" version of the way this predictable story usually plays out, the relationship is too initially perfect. The dependence of one side on the other becomes all too predictably extreme while the side better able to adapt outgrows the other. The only way the story CAN resolve itself is in suicide or mature growth. Properly done, one way can be satisfying hope, the other classic tragedy. A potentially GREAT resolution could leave the final resolution in the mind of the audience - telling as much about their lives as the underlying story. Unfortunately, Jonze is not yet a great writer or director, however superficially he tries to pull off a resolution which would argue he were if it had only worked.
Most of the friends who told me how much they loved Spike Jonze's HER emphasized the warmth of the feelings expressed by the "lovers" and how satisfying they found the execution. I'm afraid I was too wide awake to be swept into Jonze's sleepy fantasy - especially when he keeps throwing incongruities in his audience's face (there are gross copyright questions in the central character publishing a book of letters he has written on contract FOR third parties midway in). In the end, while I remained wide awake for the whole 126 minutes (feeling more like 252), emotionally I was right with the poor boy sitting the row in front of me who had to ask his girl friend during the credits what had happened during the last quarter hour when he had fallen asleep. At least he didn't snore.
Not a good afternoon - all the more disappointing because HER might have been in more creative hands.