Release date: February 14th This year's most unconventional Valentine's Day film is the story of a man in love with his computer operating system. Her is just the fourth film from Being John Malkovich director Spike Jonze, but in that time he has proved himself the most consistently engaging of the generation of 21st century quirky indie filmmakers. After the large scale of Where the Wild Things Are, Jonze is back to working on the smaller scale of a lonely single man, in this case Joaquin Phoenix, sporting high waisted trousers and an ill-judged moustache as the preposterously named Theodore Twomblys. After his divorce from his childhood sweetheart, the unhappy introvert buys a talking operating system with advanced artificial intelligence and the ability to learn. As Theodore is able to tell his OS, Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), things he would never tell another person, he develops a closer and closer bond with "her, but all the time her personality and relation to the world is growing and changing too. Jonze's films always have a great deal of style and, thanks to a soundtrack from Arcade Fire and Jonze's ex, Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O, so it's sure to sound just as good as O's work on Where the Wild Things Are. It's Siri-like take on artificial intelligence also feels more like a genuine slice of the not too distant future than the more grandiose Transcendence. Having been given a limited release in America, Her has already been nominated for three Golden Globes: Best Picture - Musical or Comedy, Best Actor for Phoenix and Best Screenplay for Jonze, as well as Best Film at the Producers Guild Awards (generally perceived to be the best indicator of the likely Oscar Best Picture).
