Samantha Morton

Most rising young film actresses, faced with the prospect of a solid career, are almost absurdly eager to please: They're diplomatic about their co-workers, willing to share details of their past and present with the media, and reluctant to say or do anything that will ruffle feathers or provoke strong opinions about them. Well, that isn't the way Samantha Morton does things.

If you're putting together a movie as finely tuned as Spike Jonze's "Her," it helps to have talented people working in perfect sync. You also could use a big weekend retreat in Malibu. Our ongoing "Five Days of 'Her'" series has been looking at the highly specific and counterintuitive ways the futuristic film was put together. (You can also read Installments 1 , 2 and 3. ) Today, assistant director and longtime Jonze collaborator Thomas Patrick Smith. We've talked to a number of people on this movie about their vision but we haven't delved into how they came together in the first place.

If you're putting together a movie as finely tuned as Spike Jonze's "Her," it helps to have talented people working in perfect sync. You also could use a big weekend retreat in Malibu. Our ongoing "Five Days of 'Her'" series has been looking at the highly specific and counterintuitive ways the futuristic film was put together. (You can also read Installments 1 , 2 and 3. ) Today, assistant director and longtime Jonze collaborator Thomas Patrick Smith. We've talked to a number of people on this movie about their vision but we haven't delved into how they came together in the first place.

Deep in post-production on his weird but wonderful sci-fi romance "Her" this past March, Spike Jonze made the difficult decision to - as the old editing edict goes - kill one of his darlings. The nuanced vocal performance turned in by British actress Samantha Morton, who was portraying a Siri-esque computer operating system who finds herself in a state of deep romantic longing with Joaquin Phoenix's lovelorn, all-too-human divorced character, in the end "wasn't right" for the film.

The 1980 suicide of Ian Curtis, lead singer of the British rock quartet Joy Division, is a poignant side plot in 2002's raucous survey of the Manchester music scene, "24 Hour Party People."

In the upcoming film rendition of Alan Warner's 1995 novel "Morvern Callar," Samantha Morton plays the enigmatic title character: a quiet girl with a boyfriend who slits his wrists on Christmas day and bequeaths her a finished novel and the gift of a mix tape. The rest of this poetic, often beautiful, film unfolds with the music on that tape, letting the emotional content of the songs inform us about the emotional state of the mysterious girl.

As with an electron whose exact speed and location can never be determined at the same time, it is difficult to explain "Morvern Callar" in a way that does justice to the what-happens-next elements of its story and the feeling, the sensation, of watching it. The latest from acclaimed British director Lynne Ramsay, the film is a revolutionary head trip charged with energy and spirit that solidifies her position as one of the most interesting filmmakers at work in the world today.

Deep in post-production on his weird but wonderful sci-fi romance "Her" this past March, Spike Jonze made the difficult decision to - as the old editing edict goes - kill one of his darlings. The nuanced vocal performance turned in by British actress Samantha Morton, who was portraying a Siri-esque computer operating system who finds herself in a state of deep romantic longing with Joaquin Phoenix's lovelorn, all-too-human divorced character, in the end "wasn't right" for the film.

Ben Foster is standing on a boulder in a field in Armenia. That's not some trendy new Zen practice and he's not shooting a scene (although he's there working on "Here," his next film); he's just trying to manage some decent cell reception. Normally soft-spoken, he gamely shouts into the wind about his turn as an Army casualty notification officer in Oren Moverman's "The Messenger." "If you can remove the filter of war, it's about feelings we all have -- falling in love with someone in a difficult situation; we've all experienced loss; we will make the phone call to loved ones and have to break the news.

The five top-grossing movies at the weekend box office: 1. "Minority Report," with Tom Cruise and Samantha Morton, above, with a weekend gross of $35.7 million; 2. "Lilo & Stitch," slightly behind at $35.3 million; 3. "Scooby-Doo"; 4. "The Bourne Identity"; 5. "The Sum of All Fears."

Ben Foster is standing on a boulder in a field in Armenia. That's not some trendy new Zen practice and he's not shooting a scene (although he's there working on "Here," his next film); he's just trying to manage some decent cell reception. Normally soft-spoken, he gamely shouts into the wind about his turn as an Army casualty notification officer in Oren Moverman's "The Messenger." "If you can remove the filter of war, it's about feelings we all have -- falling in love with someone in a difficult situation; we've all experienced loss; we will make the phone call to loved ones and have to break the news.

The 1980 suicide of Ian Curtis, lead singer of the British rock quartet Joy Division, is a poignant side plot in 2002's raucous survey of the Manchester music scene, "24 Hour Party People."

As with an electron whose exact speed and location can never be determined at the same time, it is difficult to explain "Morvern Callar" in a way that does justice to the what-happens-next elements of its story and the feeling, the sensation, of watching it. The latest from acclaimed British director Lynne Ramsay, the film is a revolutionary head trip charged with energy and spirit that solidifies her position as one of the most interesting filmmakers at work in the world today.

In the upcoming film rendition of Alan Warner's 1995 novel "Morvern Callar," Samantha Morton plays the enigmatic title character: a quiet girl with a boyfriend who slits his wrists on Christmas day and bequeaths her a finished novel and the gift of a mix tape. The rest of this poetic, often beautiful, film unfolds with the music on that tape, letting the emotional content of the songs inform us about the emotional state of the mysterious girl.

Most rising young film actresses, faced with the prospect of a solid career, are almost absurdly eager to please: They're diplomatic about their co-workers, willing to share details of their past and present with the media, and reluctant to say or do anything that will ruffle feathers or provoke strong opinions about them. Well, that isn't the way Samantha Morton does things.

Coming home (again): Samantha Morton, Peter Dinklage and Peter O'Toole are starring in "Lassie," a new adaptation of the 1938 novel "Lassie Come Home" by Eric Knight that is filming in Ireland. In development: Comedy Central says it is developing a game show that would star Ken Jennings, the Salt Lake City software engineer who won a record 74 games in a row on "Jeopardy!"

"Mystic River" and "Lost in Translation" scored big in three year-end critics' polls released Tuesday. "Mystic River," Clint Eastwood's drama about vengeance in America, was named best picture by the Boston Society of Film Critics. The group also named Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson best actor and actress and Sofia Coppola best director, all for "Lost in Translation."