Review of Her (2013) by Foxgrove — 19 Feb 2014

The fact that 'Her' is laden with nominations, awards, 10 best list citations and superlatives galore makes the disappointment all the more acute, although not all that surprising as I find Spike Jones' films very resistable. 'Being John Malkovich' is ok for one viewing, but I didn't get 'Adaptation' at all.

'Her' starts promisingly enough and one settles down to enjoy a gentle and engaging comedy, but the lauded screenplay is fatally flawed. On the one hand one admires some original conceits only to dismiss their unbelievable conclusions within the soft centred predictability of the story's arc. There is also a streak of sentimentality a mile wide and however hard it tries for the reverse, by the end I found myself exasperated and totally unmoved by what transpires. In addition I had more fun watching the computer games in the film than I did from the film itself.

Joaquin Phoenix is as good as always and Scarlett Johansson is engaging, for a while, as operating system Samantha, but even she wears thin by the end. Amy Adams is becoming somewhat over exposed of late and is much better in 'American Hustle'. It seems to me that the critics go ga ga over anything that seems to present an original idea. Dig deeper, though, and ths is actually not as original as its surface sheen would have us believe. It's just another boy meets girl, by loses girl, boy meets different girl. See, not so original after all. Finally, I have to mention that the simulated sex scene between Phoenix and the operating sytem is just embarrassing.