Review of Herø (2001) by Art S — 08 Nov 2014

Another film taking place in a technologically-enhanced near future where things do look intriguing (but I'm doubtful that such innovations will be available to all - the characters here are all from a certain social class).

Joaquin Phoenix plays a writer whose job is to compose moving "handwritten" letters for others (a la Cyrano, I guess), is separated and about to get divorced from Rooney Mara, and is lonely enough to fall in love with the operating system of his computer.

Of course, this is no ordinary operating system but one that has artificial intelligence (and evolves with experience) and is voiced by Scarlett Johansson. Director Spike Jonze wrote the script which makes a few obvious points; for example, in the future, everyone talks to their computers all the time, mostly ignoring other people.

So, basically the whole film involves close-ups of Phoenix reacting to the disembodied voice of Johansson. He's good but it gets old. Furthermore, there is probably too much moping about relationships for most viewers to bear.

Still, the film gets points for weirdness - always more interesting than non-weirdness, in my book.