A Call From Samantha
Tuesday, November 19, 2013 at 10:21PM 
Coming out of Her, Spike Jonze futuristic (but very "now") drama about human connection and intuitive Operating Systems I felt a little of the mood hangover that accompanied Lost in Translation. You know the way certain movies, particularly atmospheric singular ones, can do that... leave you feeling melancholy but considering or even seeing the world in a new way?
It's too fresh to say much more -- I'm still mulling it over -- but Scarlett Johansson's "Samantha", a disembodied voice that wants to be bodied, is crucial to its success. If you don't fall for Samantha how can you buy that Joaquin Phoenix's Theodore Twombly would?
We've loved ScarJo's voice since she first hit the movies. What other movie star voices could you fall in love with? Let's make a list in the comments!
P.S. Karen O's "Moon Song", attached to this post, is performed by Scarlett and Joaquin in the movie and by Karen O in the end credits and it better be Oscar nominated for Best Original Song!
P.P.S. When the movie screens in your city make sure to watch the end credits. No, there's not an extra scene or anything. It's just a scroll but there are a couple good laughs and I loved the names of the characters played by this guy and his scene partner (no, it's not how IMDb lists it).
Her, Original Song, Oscars (13), ScarJo
Reader Comments (24)
Her represents the middle section of an unofficial trilogy of Joaquin Phoenix centered films for auteurs of their generation: Paul Thomas Anderson and Spike Jonze. The Master was the first and Inherent Vice will be the last. Can you get into somewhat how you felt about his performance? And as for actors with awesome voices the first two that come to mind are Harvey Fierstein and Kathleen Turner.
Chastain's v.o. in Tree of Life= Love at first listen.
Also love:
Jean Arthur
Jessica Lange
Rachel Weisz
Isabelle Huppert
Dolly Parton- Her speaking voice
Ava Gardner
Marlene Dietrich
Gloria Grahame
Diane Keaton
Gina Gershon
Bette Davis
Whoopi Goldberg
Actor Voices Who Also Work for Me:
Orson Welles
Sam Elliott
Jeff Bridges
Raul Julia
Jeremy Irons
Keith David
Ricky Jay
Humphrey Bogart
Denzel Washington
Richard Burton
Some of the biggies for me, off the top of my head:
JUDY DAVIS
Isabelle Huppert
Ingrid Thulin
Phyllis Logan
Patricia Clarkson
Alan Rickman
Hugo Weaving
Stephen Fry
Max Von Sydow
PS. Thanks for the Karen O love, Nathaniel.
I loved this movie. Joaquin makes such a perfect Jonze protagonist, and ScarJo is also pretty heartbreaking. Her performance is like something out of a lost Woody Allen film.
Eva Green
I was going to say Kathleen Turner but too late to claim her... Alan Rickman would be brilliant too, but I'll take Daniel Craig in Bond mode.
Josh Hartnett has a great voice and I've always loved Marisa Paredes and Victoria Abril and of course the king of voice overs, Donald Sutherland.
A voice to fall in love with? Gregory Peck, always and forever. If we're talking ladies, let's go with Faye Dunaway.
Excited to hear your thoughts on Her. I didn't love it, but I think every reaction I've read has been super interesting. Whether people loved it or hated it or were somewhere in between like me, just about everyone has had something worthwhile to say about it.
Turner-Dench-Redgrave
Joanne Woodward, Elizabeth Taylor
Very excited for your thoughts on the film. I can't wait to see it!
As for the voices, Ralph Fiennes could read me the dictionary and I love Shohreh Aghdashloo's raspiness. Also, anyone with an Australian accent and Kirsten Dunst.
Wow great call on Shoreh Aghdashloo!!!
TB -- Any thoughts to share (without spoilers) on why you didn't love it?
I can't believe no one has mentioned Susan Sarandon.
@Hannah--Well I think the most obvious issue I had with it was that it seemed like a short film concept stretched beyond its limits into a feature length. But I also feel like the movie waffles between romanticizing technology and critiquing it, but it never really commits to either. It's almost like Spike Jonze wanted to make a total fantasy about a relationship with a computer, but knew that he would be really vulnerable to criticism and tried to critique the fantasy before anyone else could. Kind of makes for a disjointed movie.
That said, as a worldbuilding exercise, it's totally astonishing, and in that regard, it's a whole lot of fun.
I love Jodie Foster's voice. 70% of her acting comes from the way she handles her voice.
Sharon stone, Audrey Hepburn, Alec Baldwin, Demi Moore, robin Tunney, Giles from Buffy lol
@TB -- thanks for sharing your thoughts! The trailer makes it seem so mesmerizing, so I look forward to forming my own opinion. At the least, it looks like it creatively asks nuanced questions about love with great acting to boot. Thats an unusual combination these days.
Best voice ever, hands down--GREER GARSON
Lauren Bacall. i read somewhere that Terrence Malick told Jessica Chastain to study Bacall's voice to create her character in The Tree of Life. It was something about women voices sounding lower in the 50's.
Vanessa Redgrave has a pretty amazing voice too. Gary Oldman, Jon Hamm...
Clara- Yeah, Chastain mentioned that he told her to study Bacall and classic movies because people talked much slower in that time period and he wanted authentic characters from the 50s.
CMG - yeah, that's it. in which interview did she say this, do you remember? i wanna watch it again! i remember it was an interesting interview (as they usually are with Chastain).
Emma Stone