Review of Certified Copy (2010) by Margareth D — 06 Sep 2010
Attacked quite elegantly as an "absolute nothing" by Gerard Depardieu, Juliette Binoche does carry the film. She is impressive, expressive, impulsive, moving and sensitive. She deserves without any doubt the best Actress Award she won at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival for her role as "She" (character never named) in Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy.
"He", James Miller (William Shimmel), is an author visiting Tuscany to give a lecture on his latest book. The film starts, or seems to start, as an elegant rom-com set in Tuscany's romantic landscape.
"She" is nervous, He is quite confident and a bit distant but there is something hard to understand in their supposed recent relationship as they are too familiar at the same time. And... the unexpected twist: a waitress naturally assumes the pair to be romantically entangled.
"She" doesn't deny it. They both play up to the mistake. But is it a mistake? Are they a wedded couple in the end? Is this love or just a copy? The relationship only begins to make sense if we consider the details outside the story's timeframe and scrutinize "She"'s complex behaviour.
Several reviews have said the film offers no answer but watching carefully She's reactions and the language used (the pair speaks English at the beginning and French at the end), I think it does offer one.
What will be yours?
This review of Certified Copy (2010) was written by Margareth D on 06 Sep 2010.
Certified Copy has generally received positive reviews.
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