Spike Jonze's Movie With Joaquin Phoenix Gets New Title, Official Synopsis
Confirmed details on Spike Jonze's upcoming romance have been pretty sparse, though we've known for a while that the cast, at least, would be stellar. Joaquin Phoenix plays the lead, while Samantha Morton, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, and Olivia Wilde also star. Early word was that Phoenix would play a man who falls in love with a Siri-esque computer voice, but the official synopsis describes something a little bit different. In addition, the film has a new title — Her. Read on after the jump.
In the not so distant future, Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix), a lonely writer purchases a newly developed operating system designed to meet the user's every needs. To Theodore's surprise, a romantic relationship develops between him and his operating system. This unconventional love story blends science fiction and romance in a sweet tale that explores the nature of love and the ways that technology isolates and connects us all.
So the rumored plot wasn't that far off the mark, but there are a few key differences. Namely, that the man falls for an operating system rather than a voice, and that the program seems to actually reciprocate his affections. Somehow, that makes this movie sound way better. A love story between a man and a computer program sounds like exactly the kind of so-weird-it-works plot that Jonze can pull off with aplomb.
The Film Stage, meanwhile, got the info on the short and sweet new title, Her. On the one hand, it's sweet and simple. On the other, I can't read that title without thinking of the constant Arrested Development refrain: "Her?"Her marks Jonze's first feature directorial effort since 2009's Where the Wild Things Are, as well as his first original full-length screenplay. He's written and directed several shorts in between, though, including the Arcade Fire flick "Scenes from the Suburbs" and the robot-centric "I'm Here" starring Andrew Garfield and Sienna Guillory.
Jonze shot Her over the summer, but no release date has been announced yet. In all likelihood, it'll hit theaters sometime next year after hitting up a few festivals.