The film "She": reviews, story, actors. Fantastic melodrama Her (2013)

In 2013, the director Spike Jones presented the whole world with the film "She". Comments about the picture were so good that the tape even earned an Oscar. What did Jones create? And how did his work conquer the audience?

The creators of the picture

Spike Jones first announced himself as a talented director in 1999, having removed the comedy drama "Be John Malkovich" with John Cusack in the title role. This film received 3 nominations for "Oscar" and many other awards, although less prestigious.

Back in the 2000s, Jones decided to make the film "She". Positive feedback about the picture "I'm here", telling about the love between two robots, inspired Spike to continue working on the script of another tape. The search for funding and actors for the filming began in 2011. The first to participate in the project agreed Joaquin Phoenix. The idea of Johns impressed the artist, and he helped to find producers for the project.

It was much more difficult to solve the issue with the cast. First, the main female role in the project was given to Samantha Morton. The actress was supposed to sound artificial intelligence called Samantha. Already at the stage of postproduction, a replacement happened: Scarlett Johansson presented her voice to artificial intelligence. Spike Jones also tried to attract her to the role of the wife of the main character Carey Mulligan, but she was engaged in the "Great Gatsby", so the character went to Rooney Mare.

Short story

American cinema in recent years increasingly gravitates toward the themes of total loneliness of the inhabitants of megacities. In desperation, people are ready for close relationships with anyone - even with an invisible, intangible artificial intelligence. About this the film "She" tells.

The plot of the drama revolves around Theodore Twombly. The action takes place in the near future. Computer programs take an active part in all spheres of human life. Now you do not need to write letters manually. There are special organizations that will do this for you. Theodore works in one of these companies.

During the day he lives the life and emotions of other people. And in the evening - lonely wanders around his apartment, seriously experiencing a divorce from his ex-wife. Sometimes the main character has sex on-line. One day, Theodore sees an advertisement for a new operating system - an artificial intelligence that fulfills the wishes of its master. Twombly buys the program. Artificial intelligence is a sociable and sociable girl named Samantha. Theodore begins to communicate with her, they become friends. Then a romance arises between them.

However, artificial intangible intelligence is not able to replace a real person. It was worthwhile for Theodore to meet his ex-wife, as he clearly felt it. In the final of the hero there is one more disappointment. It turns out that he is not alone in Samantha: in fact, the machine is in a mental relationship with another 8 thousand people. The ideal relationship between Samantha and Theodore ends in complete failure.

Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore

Joaquin Phoenix is an American actor and musician. His mother worked in the casting department of the NBC television channel, so her children began to appear on television at an early age.

The first serious work of Phoenix in the movie was the role of an unhappy teenager Jimmy in the movie "For what it is worth to die." Joaquin's partners in the frame were the stars Nicole Kidman and Matt Dillon. In the 2000s, the actor broke into a big movie, playing the role of emperor in the historical film "Gladiator" with Russell Crowe in the title role. Then there were paintings "Hotel Rwanda", "Cross the Line", "Fatal Passion" and the film "She".

Joaquin Phoenix played in Spike Jonze's project a lonely and somewhere unhappy man. His life is a complete illusion. After the writer Theodore Tuombli left his beloved wife, he completely went into the fictional world. For days on end, Theodore lives with the emotions and feelings of his clients, making personal letters for each other. In the evenings, the Twombly hangs in online games. And even if the protagonist meets with women, the novels also happen only online, virtually.

It is not surprising that an impressionable writer managed to fall in love with artificial intelligence. At some point the protagonist was still troubled by the question: how much is this normal? However, he then dismissed thoughts from himself, continuing the relationship, which initially had no future.

One day, Theodore learns that Samantha (that's the name of his virtual girlfriend) is a universal program. It simultaneously functions on several devices and conducts conversations simultaneously with 8 thousand users. 600 of them, Samantha, she seems to love. This discovery turned out for Tuombli the real collapse of his world. And yet, when Samantha decides to leave, Theodore regrets this and experiences a real tragedy. This pushes him to resume traditional human relations in the real world.

"She" (film): Scarlett Johansson as Samantha

Scarlett Johansson is an A-class star in Hollywood and needs no introduction. She started acting as a teenager: everyone can see her, for example, in the movie "Alone at home - 3" and "The Horse Charmer". Then Scarlett looked like an ordinary neighbor girl.

However, in the early 2000s, the girl decided to radically change the image. She with the help of plastic surgery improved the form of the nose, repainted herself in a blonde and started to exploit her sexuality. As a result, the role of the heart was fixed for the actress. And if the directors need a performer for the role of an extremely sexy heroine or an insidious temptress, they most often invite Scarlett.

Fantastic melodrama Spike Jonza - this is an interesting experiment. Such a celebrity as Scarlett Johansson, in this whole story plays the role of just the voice of the operating system. The actress does not appear in person, does not appear in the frame. She's just a voiceover.

Amy Adams as Theodore's girlfriend

Another invited celebrity is Amy Adams. "She" is a film in which the actress was given the modest role of Theodore's girlfriend. According to the story, Amy lives next door to Theodore. Earlier they tried to start a romantic relationship. However, it seemed to Theodora that Amy was only pulling at her friend, but not at her lover. And they remained friends.

Amy is the director. For several months she has been trying to make a documentary, but she always does not get something done and does not work. But Amy manages to get caught in the same networks as Theodore - she starts an affair with an artificial intelligence that has a male voice. As a result, the virtual lover also leaves Amy. They meet with Theodore on a deep evening and silently sad about the lost relationship. The finals remain open: it is not known how the heroes will organize their lives further.

Amy Adams is a five-time nominee for Oscar. However, up to 30 years of her career was in complete idle time. She starred in low-budget series, sometimes she managed to get the role of a second plan in a large-scale project. But nothing worthwhile still did not come out.

An unexpected breakthrough for Amy was the participation in the low-budget independent film "The June Beetle". The picture brought her a nomination for an Oscar. Then came the large-budget projects "Night at the Museum - 2", "Fighter" and "Afora in American". So the singer got into the highest acting league.

"She" (film): Rooney Mara as the former wife of Theodore

Rooney Mara shocked the public by starring in the thriller Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. For the sake of this role, the actress made herself an absurd hairstyle and agreed to participate in a number of frank scenes. As a result, a nomination for an Oscar.

Rooney Mara in the project Spike Jonza received a not very big role. Her heroine is the ex-wife of Theodora. They had a warm relationship, but then they divorced on the initiative of Katherine. In the final picture, Theodore wrote an excusable letter to his ex-wife and apologizes for not perceiving her as she is, and trying to change it. The viewer understands that the pressure on his part was the cause of the gap.

Rooney Mara can also be seen in the Hollywood projects "Peng: Travel to Netlandia", "On the Run" and "Social Network".

Chris Pratt as Paul

In the filmography of Chris Pratt, too, the movie "She" appears. Actors Joaquin Phoenix and Pratt played colleagues at work. Chris Pratt is also known to a wide audience as the Star Lord from the blockbuster "Guardians of the Galaxy" and Joshua Faraday of the "Magnificent Seven."

Other performers of roles

"She" is a 2013 film starring Olivia Wilde (The Lazarus Effect), Matt Letcher (The Mask of Zorro), Portia Doubledey (Telekinesis).

Also in the frame are the voices of French singer Soko, actress Kristen Uig and director Spike Jonz himself, who voiced a funny child from a video game.

World premiere and box office

"She" is a 2013 film, which was first shown by Spike Johns at the Film Festival in New York. On December 18, the picture was released in limited rental in the United States. In Russia, the tape was shown only in February 2014. On the first day, the drama "She" was watched by 80 thousand people. The budget for the creation of Spike Johns was laid 23 million dollars. Since the picture is devoid of special effects, and the plot is psychologically distinctive, one can make an unambiguous conclusion that "She" is not a film for a wide audience. That is why at the box office the tape collected only 47 million dollars.

Criticism

The film "She" received critical reviews. Evidence of this - 5 nominations for "Oscar", 3 nominations for "Golden Globe", 4 nominations for "Saturn". As a result, the picture won "Oscar" and "Golden Globe" for the original script. Also Scarlett Johansson took home a statuette of "Saturn" for her supporting role.

Of the 229 world reviews, only 13 were negative. That is, about 94% of critics took the film in a positive way. They were impressed with what skill and unobtrusiveness Spike Johns included in the common canon frankly erotic moments. The film could turn into another cheap, which place on the "special" site. However, all explicit sex scenes were shown not for the sake of flirting with the viewer and his instincts. In the way Spike is engaged in online sex with an inadequate stranger and tries to transfer the relationship with Samantha into the physical plane, and displays his total loneliness.

Only a desperate person can come to mind to make love not with a living, tangible partner, but with the operating system. And the way in which the total loneliness of the protagonist is shown, this is the originality of the Spike Jonze script.

Viewers' comments

The film "She" reviews from the audience received the same high as those from critics. Each in his own way defined the idea of the picture: someone saw a warning for people for the future, so that they were not very fond of network novels and often went to the "real"; Someone decided that this is a story about the ubiquity of love - they say, even the operating system can be loved sincerely. A separate category of viewers saw in the script a hint that gadgets in our country are becoming more sophisticated and smarter, and are we better - their inventors?

Such unexpected variations in the treatment of the plot speak of only one thing: Spike Jonzu really managed to create a worthy film.