Got to see Her tonight, it’s about a man who develops a relationship with the operating system on his smart phone that has a female voice.  This film is brought to you by Spike Jonze, who previously gave us Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Where The Wild Things Are, but you may know him better from the music videos he’s directed.  This time Jonze ventures out on his solo screenwriting debut.

The good; the performances are great.  Joaquin Phoenix really delivers, for most of the film he’s by himself, talking on the phone… yet he manages to make us feel; isolated, excited, happy, sad.
Amy Adams is normal looking in this movie, she’s not super glamorous, works for me.

The world that Jonze has built is stunning, it’s a natural progression (or regression) of what Los Angeles will become.  The social commentary of a man developing a relationship with his phone is very well done.

The visuals are stunning, every shot is filled, or not filled with color.  The city-scapes are amazing, and it’s really the small touches that I appreciated.  Like downtown LA’s library building has additions to it, and there’s a very present layer of smog every time we’re outside during the day.  Oh and the fashion, love the prediction of how fashion will be in the near future, bravo.

The bad; the film meanders a bit.  This could be because we’re peering in to the life of one man, but it could’ve used some tightening.  The end felt a bit dragged out, the formula for American cinema is very well established, so by the third act we’re just waiting for the inevitable to happen.  Here we get a slow drawn out third act that could’ve been more effective if it were a bit shorter.

Overall, good job Mr. Jonze, your solo screenwriting debut is something you should be proud of.  In the world we live in today Her is an omen of things to come and a projection of how things can be as we evolve and change along with the exponential growth of technology.
This film definitely has a chord to strike with its audience, not everyone will get this movie, in this case it really is a generational thing.