Movie Review: Her

Her is one of the most interesting movies I have had the pleasure of reviewing over the past year and a half due to the olive oil and water mixture of greatness and ehhh.

On the one hand, Joaquin Phoenix is amazing.

Of course, Harry S Truman once asked for a one-armed economist, and Spike Jonze probably wishes he had a one-armed movie reviewer.

On the other hand, I felt manipulated by the message Jonze was trying to portray.  Let me explain.  I did not think what he was attempting to show in his movie was bad.  In fact, the premise was clever and interesting, which is why I spent the $15 to see the movie in the theater.

The problem arises with Jonze's clear attempt to manipulate an audience's emotion.  Instead of letting his art do the talking and allowing the audience to naturally come up with a conclusion of what message Jonze was trying to portray in his film, Jonze basically was one level away from explicitly saying "this is the profound message I want you to think about."

Great movies with this type of theme do not that.  I felt cheated.  I felt as if he was basically saying, "you are not smart enough to come up with the conclusion I want, so let me help you...A LOT."  The great filmmakers, even the most manipulative of documentary directors, do not get to this level.  Maybe he did not know how to appropriately show what he wanted to show.  I am not going to speculate, but the final product was high schoolish.

Despite these shortfalls, Joaquin Phoenix is fantastic as usual, aesthetically it is fun, and Karen Oh wrote a great song for it.

Grade: B