DVD Review: A Separation

-
Getting caught up in a lie.
 
Nader (Payman Moaadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami) are growing apart in their marriage. They fight about living abroad, they fight about the well being of their 11 year old daughter, they fight about Nader's Alsheimer stricken father whom they've been caring for. In the midst of a divorce, they are faced with even more challenging times.
Iran's first film to win an Oscar is equal parts fascinating and frustrating. A Separation never loses it's pace when it's telling the story. What starts as a simple accusation morphs into lies on top of lies. You sort of lose sense on who's telling the truth here, who's doing the right thing, and who's completely wrong. It's frustrating because there is a LOT arguing. The entire film is almost a never ending fight. It's also frustrating because one person is so clearly at fault above all others. (Although not everyone is a saint here.) The ending is frankly, horrible. Sometimes it's ok for a film to leave questions unanswered, and to let the viewers decide. It simply didn't work in this film.
Moaadi is fantastic, this film really belongs to him. Although the the couple don't physically touch each other in the film, you can tell that at one time they truly loved one another and that they had great chemistry. Everything felt very realistic, but what keeps this film from being outstanding in my opinion is the ending. To put it blunty, it's a bit of a cop out.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: B

Memorable Quote: "I know he's my father." - Nader (Payman Moaadi)

Comments

  1. asrap virtuosoNovember 5, 2012 at 6:34 PM

    Love this film. We can understand, although not necessary agreeing with each character's point of view.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ruthNovember 8, 2012 at 9:56 AM

    A friend of mine just posted a guest review of this, looking forward to seeing it!

    Btw, I saw on your list on your right that you included Nobody Walks. I saw it at a local film fest last month and I did not like it at all. Silver Linings Playbook are lovely though, but my fave movie from that film fest was The Sapphires!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing ...
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen...
Read more

My Favorite Movie Youtube Channels

-
Image
Starting around 2018, I started watching Youtube for more than just movie trailers or music videos whenever a new one dropped. Now I'm in full blown subscription mode and don't bat an eyelash at watching a Youtube video that's over an hour long. I watch Youtube for a few different categories of content, but one of them that I love most is movie/TV essays and commentary, and that's what I'm going to talk about today. Below is a list of my favorite movie related Youtube channels. Let me know if you're familiar with them too, or if you have any you'd like to recommend to me.  Double Toasted - I'm honestly surprised this channel isn't bigger. I first came across Korey and Martin when they reviewed War for the Planet of the Apes a few months before it hit theaters and I thought they were hysterical. While their full length videos stream on Twitch, they often upload their movie reviews and commentary on youtube and they're always hilarious. They've...
Read more