The Past (2013)
Farhadi yet again delivers in a gripping authentic feeling family drama with great believable performances from all actors. I like how we are just thrown into this mess of a family situation without unnecessary exposition, though this time there is a lot to keep track of. Not just the couple getting divorced, but a new husband and his ex-wife in a coma, a daughter from a previous relationship and a son from the new one. It is messy, but it comes together naturally.
There is a lot of people hurt in this and enough sympathy to around, plenty of repressed pain to unfold and the films focus switched around. It doesn’t finish where it starts, and that actually works remarkably well. As usual, there are twists and reveals that complicates matter even further, showing people that won’t accept the truth in front of them.
However, as was also a slight criticism from me in the other films by Farhadi, the script has a bit too many plot convenient developments. It annoyed me more afterwards than during it, but again it feels artificially constructed. Which makes this just shy of real high marks, but worth seeing.
Rating: 4