Oscar-Winning Her Heads Home From Warner Home Video On May 13

Warner Home Video announced this past week that May 13 will be the street date for DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack (with UltraViolet) editions of director Spike Jonze’s Best Picture nominee, Her.

The ARR works out to 144 days and domestic ticket sales came to $25.2 million.

With five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, an Oscar win for Spike Jonze’s screenplay and a cast featuring Joaquin Phoenix (back from his “retirement”), Amy Adams and Rooney Mara, with Scarlett Johansson as the voice of his electronic  companion, Samantha, it comes as something of a surprise that the film didn’t perform better in its theatrical run.

The weather was certainly a factor.   A crowded Christmas season pushed the film down viewing lists and the theatrical trailer did not fully convey Jonze’s Oscar-winning script.  Indeed, you came away with the impression that Joaquin Phoenix’s character was some sort of nut job.

As with Jonze’s Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, this film has so much going on that trying to cut a trailer to describe the storyline proved to be difficult.   The Oscar for Best Script was well-deserved — a blend of sci-fi with romantic comedy — and the home entertainment push by Warner Home Video will certainly open up this hidden treasure to a much wider audience. 

Set in the near future, Theodore (Phoenix) finds himself alone after his marriage falls apart … he’s a professional “letter writer” for those who can’t put their own feelings into words.   This skill doesn’t seem to have served him very well in his personal life.

With this cloud hanging over him, he decides to purchase the latest electronic marvel, the OS1, which is being pushed in the mass media as the first AI (artificial intelligence) tool.   If you thought texting and cell phones isolated people, the OS1 takes that addiction to the next level.

His OS1 “partner” is Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson), who is like a sex-phone, crisis helpline and best friend all rolled into one.   The more he inputs, the more she evolves (which is another key point to the story missing from the trailer) and the more he becomes dependent on her — it — for his own existence.   The OS1 is basically a drug. 

There is hope.  Theodore begins to make little discoveries about Samantha … which snowball.   We can say this much, Her does end on a positive note with hope of human interaction being restored.

Bonus nuggets include three featurettes — “The Untitled Rick Howard Project,” “How Do You Share Your Life with Somebody” and “Her: Love in the Modern Age.”

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report:  DVD & Blu-ray Release Report