Hailed as the film of the year by many critics, but whether it is or not, it certainly is original, and leaves you head-scratching bout the issues of romance, love and the future of relationships. Theodore (Joanquin Phoenix) is a lonely love letter writer for the web. If this were the 60s he’d be writing Hallmark cards, or as his colleague says “who knew he could rhyme so many words with the name Penelope.”
But while Theodore knows how to make the world feel good, he feels bad, harboring loneliness and pain, about to sign off on his own divorce from his ex (Rooney Mara). Now he lives in a world that moves a step beyond email, and instagrams and web dating. A world that offers provocative downloads – operational system romances – where a woman, and in his case, Samantha (Scarlett Johansson) is a sexy voice that makes his every dream come true.
At first Samantha feels intrusive, but without the demands of marriage from a real living breathing woman, she might end up being the answer. She’s intuitive as a result of developing a consciousness that understands Theodore, knows his every desire and eventually falls in love with him, too.
It seems the key to any relationship – whether it’s a human woman or a voice activated operational system – is that men want to be heard, validated, accepted and appreciated. And one gets there in this film, but haven’t we heard all of that before?
Perhaps the film is a hit among critics who get tired of the same ole same ole, so this is something out of the normal realm of holiday and Oscar contenders. Perhaps it’s that for two hours they get to listen to America’s sexiest woman of the year breathe sweet-nothings into Theodore’s ear. Male critics would love that sort of thing. Or perhaps it’s a safe escape from what Theodore knew in love, marriage, and feeling that from here on, life will be less than what he’s had but he’s cool with the non-committal albeit committal factor.
Amy Adams co-stars but has no definition in an out-of-place role as the neighbor. Spike Jonze directs, famous for other head scratching but brilliant films like Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. One would suppose the charm of this film, aside from Joaquin’s fabulous performance and reminiscent of his socially-inept and isolated performance in Two Lovers is a great screenplay. But in the end, a perfect woman, whether voice activated or human voice, in a perfect non-perfect relationship still goes from the honeymoon phase to the ‘we need to talk’ phase…there’s no getting around that. ♕ ♚ ♛