Review of Certified Copy (2010) by Miranda R — 19 Apr 2011

It's "Before Sunrise" by way of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," a modestly-scaled but wonderful film. It communicates its theme and metaphor in a very direct and above-board way that would seem distractingly contrived if it weren't mitigated by the very naturalistic performances and cinematography.

At the very least, you are constantly aware that the film is trying to tell you something, and the ideas and filmic devices only get more complex and apparent as the film progresses, which forces a certain intellectual distance from the unfolding story.

I have to think this effect was intentional, as it is wonderfully counterbalanced by Binoche, whose performance is the irresistible emotional anchor of the entire film. Binoche is a tour-de-force in this movie, her performance aught to go down in history.

She takes a flat, squared-off headshot and performs emotional sorcery before your eyes. It's impossible not to be affected, and she critically saves the film from being a dry, intellectual lecture for film buffs.

Since this fact plays so well into the film's theme, I have to assume it was the plan all along, that Kiarostami somehow knew he could aim a camera at Binoche and she'd just hand him a great film.

At the end of the day, it's still a pretentious art-house flick aimed at cinephiles, but I happen to like a good lecturing-to once in a while, especially when it comes attached to probably the greatest film performance in the year 2010.