Monday, October 01, 2012

Movie recommendation: A Separation [Bryan]

Just saw a wonderful film: A Separation. I can't even begin to detail the rich and intriguing (but not complicated) plot. It is an emotionally powerful ride through family relationships, human motivations, political change, and religious faith. The film creates a messy situation, full of believably complicated characters, and then refuses to tell us who is right. I am a lover of Iranian films, and this is one of the best and most accessible. The reviewer for the LA Times summed it up well: 
Perhaps the most impressive thing about the way "A Separation's" exquisitely human situations unfold is that the narration allows for as many points of view as there are characters. Everyone is fallible yet everyone feels justified in their own particular grievances, and the film is at pains not to pick sides. The great French director Jean Renoir, who would have loved this film, exactly sums up its situation in one of his most famous phrases: "The real hell of life is that everyone has his reasons."