Her - 2 smiles

Essentially, “Her” is formulaic: boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy loses girl. The quirk is that the girl is an operating system, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. The story is too thin for its two-hour running time and the pace is leisurely. But the biggest obstacle is the protagonist (Joaquin Phoenix), a man we know almost nothing about. He’s just some average guy in the near future, totally bland, someone with no obstacle to overcome and no goal to achieve. Phoenix mumbles too much and seems so wrapped up in his role that he fails to connect with the audience. (What makes him even harder for me to like is the fact that he is one of my least favorite actors.) Johansson’s voice is the movie’s saving grace; Samantha is the one character who seems to be having any fun.

Writer/director Spike Jonze is tackling a growing problem: we can’t go anywhere or do anything without checking our phones. Theodore (Phoenix) is using technology to avoid the pain of real human connection. And that’s the problem with the movie, too. Jonze is so entranced with his central conceit that he can barely move beyond it. Theodore knows, just as we do, that real-life relationships are messy. It’s much easier to embark on a relationship with Samantha (Johansson) where he can put his hand-held device in his pocket and have her with him at all times. Unfortunately for Theodore, he’s in love with an illusion. “Her” is a lot more interesting to think about than watch.  12/26/13