MOVIE REVIEW: HER

“HER” PRESS REVIEW

To begin, it’s film awards season now, so let’s roll out the red carpet for noteworthy credits.

“HER” surpasses as a 2014 romantic comedy albeit being a science fiction movie.

It is brilliantly written, produced and directed by SPIKE JONZE.

Kudos for its originality of script.

The ensemble cast includes JOAQUIN PHOENIX, AMY ADAMS, ROONEY MARA with SCARLETT JOHANSSON playing the female voice of Samantha.

That done, the  plot weaves around  a lonely man who develops a fairy tale romance with an unseen feel-good female voice produced by an intelligent high-end computer operating system.

On a recent score, this film bags several accolades and nominations, starting off with being chosen as the Best Film of 2013 at the National Board of Review Awards.

It also shared first place for Best Film with another feature Gravity in the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards.

To date, it has been lined up for three Golden Globe nominations.

Sadly, it only managed to walk away with the one for Best Screenplay.

The Oscar showtime is still around the corner at this time of writing, so there are no news of winners.

“HER” is a beautiful movie that’s bound to tug at your heartstrings in key scenes.

For starters, it makes you think. You question yourself, can this be you?

As human beings, all of us search for forthright answers in this age where we are coping with the angst of living, loving and parting.

Directed by Spike Jonze this one is a pretty sad comedy (paradox intended) about a lonesome writer (Joaquin Phoenix)(JOAQUIN) who is bored with his existence and falls in love with the female voice from his computer’s highly technical operating system.

Here’s where you have to suspend your disbelief.

Our leading man is a hardworking 30-something composer of handwritten letters for his online clients.

He imagines their words and even invents their relationship mythology.

But his own life is one solitary trudge where you watch your world goes by, besieged by emotional tethers. Nobody enjoys solitude, right?

Perhaps it’s because he tries to blend into the real world before, and people continue to disappoint him.

After seeing an advertisement for an artificial intelligence operating system, Theodore purchases one and finds that his new OS is voiced by an imaginary female named Samantha (an articulate Scarlett Johansson does the voice on-camera). Communicating by way of an earpiece and a small hand-held device, she keeps him on schedule.

The film director ushers us into the protagonist’s emotional world.

He develops it brilliantly, adding a touch of poetic indulgence, keeping the the mood-and-tone sweet and sentimental.

JOAQUIN PHOENIX pitches in an incredible performance as the lovelorn dude.

 The star distraction of the film is the unseen “voice” the one we’d never get to see.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON’s enthralls us as the “voice” and she is superb.

Her words flow with grace with an earnestness to connect with the outside world through Theodore’s eyes.

It’s a far cry from your typical relationship, but then it’s fiction and yes, love is always blind.

Right?

“HER” is entertaining, exhilarating, enduring as it is meant to be.

It’s one sweet and wonderful film that no one should miss.

Right.