The Past manages to bring out the worst in two types of cinema. French film has a reputation of lingering in the drollness of minute expository detail, languished silences, and camera shots of people breathing through their mouths at sidewalk cafes. Iranian cinema often edges toward melodrama and contains plot crescendos that are disappointingly predictable. If you tune into The Past, then load up on hot chai or café au lait (the film's in French), because you'll need it to stay awake. There's nothing particularly groundbreaking about the storyline here. A pretty woman who has strung together a lifetime of bad relationships with men who, for whatever reason, abandon her. The two men in her life, a former husband and one next in line, are deft at pointing out everyone's mistakes except their own. Except for the three children--the film's biggest casualty--everyone with more than three speaking lines turns out to be a class "A" jerk. And what's with Farhadi's obsession with camera shots involving people struggling to talk to each other through glass? We got the "seeing isn't communicating" message after the first scene at the airport, Mr. Director, so let's move on. A bland flick whose only redeeming quality is it's multiculturalism. That being the case, AfroPixFlix plucks just two picks and recommends checking out a perky National Geographic selection instead.
Review of The Past
