Spike Jonse

After rewatching the film Her, written and directed by Spike Jonze, I realized that I had never watched a movie so intimately and actively involved in the layering of subtext. Her is an examination of the unconscious feelings that humans feel as well as the struggle to understand those feelings. At first glance, Her may seem like a simple story of tough love between an operating system and a man, but what exists in the subtext is something far more poignant. Jonze uses the power of subtext to make the audience understand underlying desires of the character of Theodore. We follow the character of Theodore on a journey in which he searches for real emotion, except Theodore cannot handle real emotions. Spike Jonze’s screenplay, along with his
The use of depth of field is the most noticeable. For example, Jonze uses shallow depth of field in times where Theodore feels trapped and lost in his mind. The majority of the time, this is when he is in a fight with Samantha or in an uncomfortable situation. When Theodore feels no connection to the world and the loneliness. For example, when Theodore goes on a date with the character played by Olivia Wilde, the outside sequence is shot in extreme close ups and very shallow depth of field. Jonze puts us so close that we feel uncomfortable, that we feel lost and unaware. This represents Theodore’s subtext because although Theodore is looking for comfort and affection on the surface, the subtext of Theodore’s dialogue later reveals he is in a struggle to understand the true nature of his feelings and no matter how close he gets to somebody, he still feels lost and like he doesn’t belong. Jonze also add’s to the subtext of the film through the color. The use of soft red’s indicate Theodores feeling of love, because love and Valentine’s day is often related to the color red. Yet yellow is often a bright color that is the completely opposite of how Theodore feels. If this film were directed by any else who was not completely in touch with subtext, they would most likely make it very dark and drained of color. Jonze uses the brightest and most meaningful colors to contrast with Theodore’s inner