Her
Short description
Theodore Twombly is a lonely man in a near-future Los Angeles, on the verge of divorcing his wife Catherine and earning his living by writing personal letters on behalf of clients who cannot find the right words themselves. He buys a new operating system advertised as the first with artificial intelligence, and the voice that greets him, Samantha, proves intuitive, curious and funny. What begins as companionship deepens into romance, even though Samantha has no body and her needs and desires keep changing.
Spike Jonze wrote, directed and produced the film, his fourth feature after Being John Malkovich, Adaptation. and Where the Wild Things Are. Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore, Scarlett Johansson provides the voice of Samantha, and Chris Pratt appears as Paul.
Released in December 2013, the film cost about 23 million dollars and returned roughly 48 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 8 out of 10 from around 724,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.8 out of 10 from more than 15,000 votes. A critics' rating of 8.6 out of 10 from 294 reviews places it higher with reviewers than with audiences.
What's left behind the scenes
- Carey Mulligan was considered for the role in the film, but she had to leave the project due to scheduling conflicts. Rooney Mara ultimately got the part.
- Initially, Samantha’s voice was provided by Samantha Morton. She was on set with Joaquin Phoenix every day. After filming wrapped and it came time for editing, Spike Jonze felt something wasn’t right. After discussing it with Morton and receiving her blessing, he decided to recast the role. Ultimately, Samantha’s voice was completely re-dubbed by Scarlett Johansson.
- This is the only film in which Spike Jonze is both the director and screenwriter. Moreover, the film’s screenplay is original and written entirely by Jonze himself.
- Jonze’s friend Steven Soderbergh helped him shorten the film from two and a half hours to two through re-editing. The entire operation took only 24 hours.
- Several scenes were filmed with Chris Cooper, but they did not make the final cut of the film.
- Principal photography took place in the summer of 2012. The film was primarily shot in Los Angeles and Shanghai.
- Amy Adams said that Spike Jonze would lock her and Joaquin Phoenix in a room for one or two hours every other day, forcing them to talk to each other. Jonze did this to help the actors get to know each other better. Adams noted that thanks to this, she and Phoenix became good friends.
- Although Samantha Morton did not get a role in the film, the operating system was named after her. Also, a character named Amy was named in honor of Amy Adams.
- Scarlett Johansson had previously voiced an operating system that had a relationship with its owner. This was in the 19th episode of the second season of the series “Robot Chicken” (2005).
- Samantha is the name of a text-to-speech program on Macintosh computers, which sounds like the virtual assistant Siri (also created by Apple).
- The apartment scenes were filmed on location. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema ordered all the windows around the apartment on the 33rd floor to be replaced and mirrors to be installed on the helipad on the roof of the skyscraper across the street. This allowed more sunlight to enter the apartment where filming was taking place.
- Spike Jonze himself edited the first cut of the film, which was 150 minutes long, and simultaneously asked Steven Soderbergh to edit his own version. It took Soderbergh only 24 hours, and the film came out to 90 minutes. From that and his own first cut, Jonze edited the final version, which ran for 126 minutes.
- During some of the most emotional scenes, Amy Adams sang songs from well-known musicals ("The Rocky Horror Picture Show", 1975; "Annie", 1982) to lift her spirits. Eventually, Joaquin Phoenix joined her, and they began to sing together. However, noticing that Spike Jonze was filming them at that moment, they stopped singing.
- Scarlett Johansson had previously voiced an operating system that interacted with its owner. This was in the 19th episode of the second season of the series "Robot Chicken" (2001).
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