In Tokyo, a young prostitute develops an unexpected connection with a widower over a period of two days.
Artfully composed scenes and the leitmotif of reflecting surfaces suggest the elusiveness of Takanashi's character – she's almost a cipher of passivity – but they never cohere into a satisfying narrative. And the ending should figure in a Top 10 Worst Ever.
This is a minor work by Kiarostami, but well acted and made with eerily deliberate poise.
Now practically an exile from his homeland, Kiarostami follows Certified Copy with another film-literate relationship drama with the enigmatic overtones of Hitchcock.
A frustratingly inscrutable film that fails to engage.
If this might not be amongst Kiarostami's very best films (Close-Up, A Taste of Cherry, The Wind Will Carry Us), it is nevertheless a very fine one, and a good companion piece to his previous film, the Tuscan set Copie Conforme.
Like so much of Kiarostami's work, the further away from it one gets, the more it seems to mean; his real skill, perhaps, is in making the profound appear lightweight, its gravitational pull noticeable only during the escape trajectory.
All well and good if he didn’t conform to the clichés of the arthouse auteur in other ways by exhibiting that fascination many male film-makers seem to have with the ins-and-outs of high-end prostitution.
There’s some artful fiddling with plot expectations, but the film’s evident self-regard makes this a rather undergraduate provocation.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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