While not the masterpiece of "A Separation" or "Firework's Wednesday", it's none-the-less always wonderful to have a new film by Asghar Farhadi in the theaters here in the States. His humanism and naturalism place him on equal footing with the Dardenne brothers and the fact that he's doing his social character cinema in Iran makes him even more important to a Western viewer.
This film quietly unfolds, taking its time. Not having any notion of the plot going in allowed me to sink into Farhadi's rhythms and sense of place and allowed his turns of story to take me by surprise. Eventually, the current reaches an incredibly charged, tense, and emotional last act that never once falls into traditional narrative traps. The final few shots are masterfully simple and perfectly contextualized, supporting a whole film's worth of meaning in and of themselves.
My adoration for Farhadi remains.
This film quietly unfolds, taking its time. Not having any notion of the plot going in allowed me to sink into Farhadi's rhythms and sense of place and allowed his turns of story to take me by surprise. Eventually, the current reaches an incredibly charged, tense, and emotional last act that never once falls into traditional narrative traps. The final few shots are masterfully simple and perfectly contextualized, supporting a whole film's worth of meaning in and of themselves.
My adoration for Farhadi remains.