Sunday, March 4, 2012

99% A Separation

All Critics (124) | Top Critics (37) | Fresh (123) | Rotten (1) | DVD (2)

These people seem so real they might live next door. And they probably do.

Very few movies capture as convincingly as A Separation does the ways in which seemingly honorable decisions can lead to interpersonal conflict -- even disaster.

To say the piercing Iranian film A Separation is about divorce is a bit like saying The Wizard of Oz is about a pair of slippers.

"A Separation" moves beyond one couple's sundering marriage to reveal growing rifts between generations, ideologies, religious mind-sets, genders and classes in contemporary Iran.

"A Separation" is a great movie, a look inside a world so foreign that it might as well be another planet, yet so universal that its observations are painfully familiar to anyone, anywhere.

Asghar Farhadi's emotionally epic movie is not just a masterpiece dramatically, it is a movie dramatically of its moment.

A clarion cry that cuts through the xenophobic clutter and the dense fog of war to show that not everyone "over there" is a boogeyman waiting to jump out of the closet. If that sounds terribly simplistic, just consider where we live.

A Separation is more than a character study; it's a deftly plotted drama that unfolds layer after layer and will leave you asking all kinds of questions about your beliefs and moral judgments. Fascinating stuff.

The story has no winners, and the daringly ambiguous ending defies simple conclusions. Even the title can be taken multiple ways.

The movie opens the door on a foreign culture, yet the people do not seem that dissimilar. .... They deal with some of the same struggles ... -- generational and class conflicts, ideological differences, and connecting and communicating emotionally.

A devastating portrait of two families in crisis, with their class differences representing the title's true 'separation.'

"A Separation" deals with some very murky issues, but it does so with astonishing clarity.

The movie is a singular mix of the foreign and the familiar, but is it the best 2011 film in the whole wide world? A 99? I can't say that I concur with my colleagues on that score.

A Separation explores how presumed social norms are extremely tenuous and how threats to these almost illusory ideas can threaten our sense of personal security.

Farhadi does not talk down to his viewer, and he trusts his audience to make their own decisions.

The performances and direction match the sharply observed screenplay, which is layered and nuanced, never settling for the pat answer. Indeed, it avoids answers as much as it can, giving audiences a far more interactive experience than most films

Thought provoking and powerful drama. One action becomes the trigger for the unravelling that filmmaker Asghar Farhadi explores: secrets, lies and truths are exposed

a brilliant, mesmerizing drama, incredibly well-acted by its ensemble cast

One of A Separation's many virtues is the way it gradually reveals, Rashomon-like, the complicated facts, half-truths, and lies that each character tells for perfectly legitimate reasons.

Finely crafted drama teems with conflicts involving class, generations, mental health and good old fashioned lying.

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An eye-opening experience, and a fascinating glimpse into a culture that's totally alien to my eyes.

What is a sin? What is right? When is it okay to lie? All these questions swirl in a movie that might possibly be the best foreign language film at this year's Academy Awards.

"A Separation" is a plaintive fable of the human condition that unites us.

One of the year's best reveals life in Iran

A tragically familiar family drama whose heartbreaking "for want of a nail" sequence of events spirals out of control at an intimate and individual level.

More Critic Reviews

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_separation_2011/

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