Review of Certified Copy (2010) by Betsy B — 05 Jan 2012

Certified Copy is a look at one couple's relationship at a random point in time, 15 years into their "marriage." It stars only Juliette Binoche and William Shimell.

He's an author and she owns a small antique shop. After all these years they've stopped communicating. They no longer see the point in give and take, nor do they have the energy for it. We see her as dissatisfied, frustrated, unhappy. He is ego centered and bored; he just wants the "noise" to stop.

It takes place in beautiful Tuscany, while they are on a pleasant drive in the country on a sunny day. Surely the tiniest ember of forgotten romance could kindle a fire in this setting! But their small talk quickly turns to bickering about all the trite, real little issues all couples have in common. As with most people, it isn't about the issues-those are just a vehicle for the irresistible quarrelling.

From time to time one of them will give a little and we think they're about to make up, but it doesn't happen. They are surrounded by loving couples; a wedding party, an old couple leaving a church together, a statue of a seemingly devoted pair. She wants to be like them; he is oblivious. When they stop for coffee and he leaves to take a phone call, the proprietor comments to her that he seems like a good husband.

It escalates. She says he's never around, she has to be the bad and good cop, he didn't call their son on his birthday, he remembered their anniversary but went to sleep while she was in the bathroom getting ready. So we see her as a bit of a shrew. But because of all these things, in addition to his rudeness to waiters, we know he's at fault. It's an old story and no surprise. What is a surprise is that these two people have only just met earlier that day. When he left the coffee shop for a phone call, the proprietor mistook them for a married couple. She went along with it, and embellished. Why not? He was outside and couldn't hear. When he comes back, we hold our breath assuming she will be caught in the lie, but not so! He jumps into that story without missing a beat. The whole 15-year marriage I described is a made-up story that they're both acting out from this point on. It isn't logical, but anything can happen in a movie. This movie is fiction within fiction.

They did begin their drive with small talk, but inexplicably she was unable to keep it light. Clearly, this new acquaintance summoned emotions that were very near the surface. From the first few words, the tone of their interactions was cross-they completely left out the phase of politeness and courtesy used while getting to know a person.

Just as if you were at this couple's house for dinner, watching them was very uncomfortable. We didn't like either of them very much, since we were only seeing one fragment of their "life" and personalities-on a bad day, you might say. But what a good movie! When we step "out" of the movie, they seem like two insane people, but we don't do that. We're "in" the movies we watch. We accept the fiction within the movie, just as we accept that eleven men successfully pulled off a casino robbery in Ocean's 11. The conversations are so well written that this is not hard to do. This is a good-looking couple that doesn't look so good. We can forgive that, though. We know they're just having a bad day-a single day that comprises their entire 15-year fake marriage. We find out early that they aren't married, so the whole movie is observing the two of them sorting out their individual issues with their separate pasts, and using each other to do it. Fascinating! I give it an 8 1/2.