Wednesday, October 23, 2013

His Is Hers And Hers Alone

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I think it's pretty telling that Spike Jonze titled the film Her. Not Hers, as in His & Hers - on its own it denotes no ownership by the female party. That is hers. Her is just her. It only expresses otherness - otherness of a female persuasion. Not She either, as in She & Him, that band with what's-her-bangs. She implies action - She does things. She went to the market. She told me she doesn't like my socks. Her is just objectified something else. And so goes Samantha, the object of Joaquin Phoenix's affections, or should I say projections. 

Off the top of my head I don't think I've seen a movie quite so sharp in quite this way about what that means - about how we build up the person we fall in love with into what they are. We start from scratch, from meet-cute, we switch the goddamned thing on and go live. And from there the data processes, the wheel whirr and the little sparks fly, and before you know it we think we know somebody else. It's magical, and it is deranged, and Her so perfectly encapsulates what that's all about that I can hardly believe it was plucked out of the ether and made a substantial thing. If Amy Adams were the lead in this movie I suppose it would be called Him, and it could do what it does just as well - I suppose Spike Jonze had to make Her because Spike Jonze has had many Hers in his life. (Maybe Sofia Coppola can make Him.) 

And so instead of that Amy Adams movie (which totally exists on this movie's periphery, by the way - there are a few movies on this movie's periphery that I'd also want to watch too) we get what is probably going to be, when it all comes down to it, my favorite Joaquin Phoenix performance that will ever, ever happen. Just total heartbreaking sweet sad love-struck derangement. He looked around at the lush just-off-center pastels and muted sunshine browns that Jonze was surrounding him with and he turned that color scheme into a person, a deep well of one, frustrating and optimistic and as perfectly deluded as every single one of us has to be to carry on living. I related to this movie so much that it made me ache inside.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know this movie is more but The big Bang Theory did it with Suri.

Eve said...

(...) we get what is probably going to be, when it all comes down to it, my favorite Joaquin Phoenix performance that will ever, ever happen.

Joaquin Phoenix's acting is always nothing short of amazing, so if you think that about his performance in Her, that's saying something.