Oscar Watch: Romance blossoms virtually in new 'Her' trailer

Posted Wednesday, December 4, 2013 at 10:17 AM Central

by John Couture

If you read the synopsis for Her, you might mistakenly think that the film is some sort of propaganda film for Microsoft or Apple. You see, the quirky story follows Theodore who is a bit heartbroken and, well, broken in general, but then he connects with his new operating system in ways that only Microsoft or Apple could only dream about.

No, this isn't Lars and the Real Girl or Making Mr. Right, but this film obviously shares many of the same themes and DNA of those two quirky films.

Of course, quirky and Oscar don't usually go hand-in-hand with one another. No, quirky is usually reserved for the Golden Globes or the Independent Spirit Awards. But, Her is a film written and directed by Spike Jonze. Spike does have some Oscar experience after being nominated for Best Director for Being John Malkovich, but again he was a long shot to win and Sam Mendes' win that year only strengthens the argument against quirky at the Academy Awards.

But hey, if there's a year in which quirky might actually have a chance, this might be it as there hasn't been a real odds on favorite to emerge from any of the categories yet and we're starting to run out of time. Sure, plenty of Oscar bait films will open this month and make their qualifying runs, but Her might just be quirky enough to surprise a few seasoned pundits.

While I think it's not out of the realm of possibility to see Her sneak in with double noms for Jonze for both writing and directing, it's in the acting categories that it could get interesting. Joaquin Phoenix is always an award contender and everything that we've seen in the trailers suggest that he could grab another nom here, but we are thinking a bit on the more unconventional acting nomination.

Scarlett Johansson took home Best Actress honors at the Rome Film Festival and it really gave us pause as to whether we might see her secure an Oscar nomination. I certainly can't recall any other time in which the Academy handed out a nomination to an actor or actress that actually never appeared on-screen. So, a nomination for ScarJo would be historic indeed.

Regardless, the new trailer shows that Her is an emotionally powerful film and given the latest trend in which people are turning more and more online and to social media to connect with other humans, could the future depicted in the film be far off? Her is set to open nationwide on January 10 after a limited release later this month to get nice and qualified for the Oscars.

You know, just in case.