Just Fantastic

Rating: 9/10 (27 August 2014)

The filmmaker behind movies like "Being John Malkovich" (1999) or "Adaptation" (2002) is back, four years after his last long feature film, "Where the Wild Things Are" (2009). "Her" is a beautiful, dense and mesmerizing movie, only different from mainstream tendencies in its own development. It is the work of a mature auteur, surprisingly accessible yet completely personal, and that is quite a statement nowadays.
"Her" takes place in an aseptic near future, and narrates the story of Theodore, a lonely letter writer, divorced and trapped inside a routine that keeps him just half alive. Only his neighbors seem to have some kind of contact with him, as well as the receptionist of his job. Everything changes when he decides to buy a new and sophisticated Operative System and meets Samantha.
Joaquin Phoenix is fantastic as the melancholic writer Theodore, lonely and daydreamer. His looks, manners and specially his voice really fits into such a mellow character we relate to almost instantly. His is the portrait of a man in a near future society, crowded yet emotionally empty at the same time.
Scarlet Johansson is Samantha, whose easy-going character lights up the life of Theodore, though theirs might be an impossible love. Johansson's voice is absolutely fantastic, so subtle and warm that elevates her status as an actress to those who still believe she is just a pretty face (and body) and their interaction is far more real and touching than most modern films.
"Her" is pure American Cinema, dense and layered as only worth telling stories can be. This is the story of an impersonal society, to such extent that Theodore writes letter for other people who does not have time, patience or their own emotions, to do so. It embodies the failure of intimate human contact. Such change in human behavior seems an overreaction to some, but it is also true that some might say it is just an ongoing tendency. In this futuristic society, where human contact is every time less and less frequent, the story of Theodore and Samantha is more and more likely to happen.