‘Her’ Is A Weird But Charming Love Story Featuring Joaquin Phoenix As A Man Who Falls In Love With His Operating System!
Closing out the New York Film Festival is "Her." This is the first film written and directed by Spike Jonze. It features Joaquin Phoenix as a man who 'fell in love' with his operating system (Samantha, voiced by Scarlett Johansson)
Joaquin Phoenix was the first (probably only) choice for the role. Jonze's original idea was the protagonist would be in his fifties. He thought about casting a slightly younger lead, and Phoenix immediately came to mind. Jonze narrates to The Vulture:
"(After bringing the screenplay to Joaquin) " 'I fuckin' can't do this, I'm wrong, you don't wanna cast me,'(says Joaquin)  but I loved him."
When Phoenix read the revised script: "I find it hard to focus on anything else when I'm working, so over the next year there were big gaps when I didn't talk to him at all. But when I was free, we'd talk and he'd make changes."
The synopsis/review from The Vulture: "Her springs from a notion that could be played as rimshot contemporary satire: A sensitive, lonely guy (Joaquin Phoenix) coming off a rough divorce falls head over heels for a woman who's literally custom-made for him-the artificially sentient female voice of his new computer operating system. But just as he did in Being John Malkovich andAdaptation, Jonze uses the gimmick to unlock a door to unsmirky human feeling. The result is not just a cautionary meditation on romance and technology but a subtle exploration of the weirdness, delusiveness, and one-sidedness of love. For all his imaginative conceits, Jonze is, in his way, a realist; he's less interested in playing with the technologically extraordinary than he is in demonstrating the ways in which it can burrow into our most private selves."
Deadline's Review: "It's the kind of film that will cultivate fervent admirers but may leave others scratching their heads. So be it. The idea that a sad sack lonely guy played brilliantly by Phoenix, trying to recover from a devastating divorce, could essentially fall for his "laptop" is hilarious, but it somehow seems utterly plausible here. It's a probing story of obsession run amok and the perfect fable for a society deeply in love with their gizmos."