Four years after the great, misunderstood Where the Wild Things Are, Spike Jonze returns with his latest feature Her, a film that seems to employs his usual adept handling of strangeness and heart in the story of a man (Joaquin Phoenix) who falls in love with an operating system (voiced by Scarlett Johannsson).
I suppose it's the sort of concept that could have been turned into a wacky Vince Vaughn comedy (imagine: high jinks involving smart phones vibrating in trouser pockets, wireless networks sabotaging his date with a 'real' woman, browser histories popping up at inopportune moments etc. This thing writes itself! I need to get an agent and pitch this to a studio exec like now) but Jonze (in what is his first sole writing credit) is treating it in typically straight-faced fashion. It looks good.
And as a bonus- the music for the film is composed by Arcade Fire! Whether this is all new material or re-purposed tracks remains to be seen.
Here's hoping it's another winner from the endlessly interesting Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures! Keep 'em coming.
