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Post-Modern Love Story Her (Rated R) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS Her (126 minutes) has aspirations to be a great post-modern love story, but it was a little cutesy to be entirely effective. This is the first film that Spike Jonze both wrote and directed by himself, and it is consequently a bit more linear and grounded than some of his previous films (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich). However, the unconventional love story that is its focus certainly subverts traditional romantic comedy expectations in a way that keeps the audience guessing. For certain, you know you are a watching a Jonze film. There is a meticulous attention to detail as he plays with visual boundaries, and some film student is going to have a field day analyzing the juxtaposition of enclosed and open spaces. Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix, pretending to be Johnny Galecki from The Big Bang Theory) is in a bad place, emotionally. He is going through a divorce from his childhood sweetheart (Rooney Mara) but he is doing it in a very passive aggressive way, refusing to sign the divorce papers or answer messages from his divorce lawyer. As a character, he is kind of a jerk about things. She doesn't come off very well during her screen time either, but the moment he starts talking about how he likes being married so there's no rush for him to sign the papers I want to punch him in the face. I'm not sure if that is the reaction Jonze wanted from the audience. If you try to watch this as a straightforward love story you might like it. Boy meets Operating System (Scarlett Johansson), Boy falls for Operating System, Boy loses Operating System. If, on the other hand, you were not lobotomized before breakfast this morning, you will find this great love story pretty emotionally abusive. Again, I can't tell if this is on purpose, like with Blue Valentine or on accident, like the Twilight franchise. I mean, Theodore makes a deep emotional connection with an operating system that (according to an early scene) is designed to adapt to his needs and develop a personality specifically catering to his psychology — and which, I might add, he can turn on and off at will. Can you have a relationship with someone whom you can "delete?" But I digress. Theodore works at beautfulhandwrittenletters.com, sadly not a real website. He spends his days composing emotional touchstones for other people to send to the ones they love; a very weird, characteristically Jonze plot point. He has a few friends at work, including Paul (Chris Pratt). This is probably a good time to mention the fact that all the men in the film are wearing their pants pulled up so high the waistband is about nipple height, clearly an attempt to inject some near-future aesthetic on-screen. It makes some of the guys, Pratt in particular, look like they should be starring as roughnecks in a musical about sailors. In addition to the people he works with, he has neighbors who apparently sided with him during the divorce, Amy (Amy Adams) and Charles (Matt Letscher). Amy is some sort of documentarian/ video game artist, and also she is a sad person on many levels. She is sort of reminding me of Cameron Diaz's character from Being John Malkovich. Amy tries to set Theodore up with a blind date (Olivia Wilde) but those never go well. So Theordore, unable to cope with the real world and unwilling to cultivate actual connections with actual people, falls in love with his OS, now named Samantha. This gets a little weird and involves sexual surrogates and Brian Cox. Ultimately, Samantha and the rest of the OS companions make some decisions that probably led to people suing the pants off the company that designed the program. Overall, there is a lot going HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing on here and I'm not surprised Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upandHer is a critic's darling. comingweekly.com. "I don't have to worry about Mom anymore." – Lisa B., Client's daughter Grand Re-Opening Sat., Feb. 1st Early Birds 7:00 – 9:00 am Lunch & Dinner 11:00 am – 9:00 pm Come Enjoy Our Awesome Atmosphere Great Wings, Angus Burgers, our all Famous Ruben and much more. Also, serving a variety of Domestic, Imported & NC Microbrews. 4400 Bragg Blvd., 910-487-9490 Co-located w/Polaris- Victory of Fayetteville, M&M Leather and Custom Cycles WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Client Mary W. with her daughter Lisa B. BAYADA offers a broad range of services and a team of professionals who are committed to keeping people of all ages safe at home. Services include: • Nursing and assistive care, such as help with bathing and grooming • Thoroughly screened health care professionals • Clinical support 24 hours, 7 days • A variety of payment options Call 910-486-5001 l www.bayada.com Compassion. Excellence. Reliability. JAN. 29 - FEB. 4,2014 UCW 17