Iranian writer/director Asghar Farhadi repeated at the Oscars with a second Best Foreign Language win, after A SEPARATION won in 2011, for this considerably lesser achievement. A series of unfortunate incidents, it begins when an unstable apartment building forces a married couple (he teaches, both act) into a blind move to temp housing arranged by a colleague. A few casual missteps at their new building leave the wife vulnerable to attack; and while her physical wounds will soon heal, the pair seem to go out of their way to make every psychological & social mistake possible in the messy aftermath, the blame game & retribution. It’s where the film comes up short, missing the sense of inevitable tragic escalation Farhadi specializes in. The U-turn revelations that throw completely new light on not only what happened, but why it happened. Manufactured story beats for calculated effect rather than dramatically organic development. Ironic that the play being rehearsed & performed is DEATH OF A SALESMAN since so much Arthur Miller suffers from the same fault of preordained misery forced into specific shapes like those gourds grown in molds to resemble Nixon. The film is well put together, but a disappointment.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Instead of A SEPARATION or one of Farhadi’s better-known later works, see his method in chrysalis with CHAHARSHANBE-SOORI (FIREWORKS WEDNESDAY)’06). https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/05/chaharshanbe-soori-fireworks-wednesday.html OR: His new film, A HERO/’21. (not seen here)
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