After reading a brief summary of “Like Someone in Love,” I
thought it would be an interesting movie to see. Boy, was I wrong. I am
completely bewildered by this movie, which seems to be a fairly straightforward
story: A Japanese college student (Rin Takanashi) who moonlights as an escort (without
her boyfriend’s knowledge) spends a platonic night with an elderly professor
(Tadashi Okuno). The next day, the professor drives her to an exam, discusses
the pros and cons of marriage with her boyfriend (Ryo Kase) (who mistakenly
assumes he’s her grandfather) and attempts to rescue her when the boyfriend
discovers what’s actually going on.
I don’t understand what director Abbas Kiarostami is trying
to say. It’s not a character study, as each of the three main characters is
defined by a few shallow descriptions. And the narrative consists of
dispassionate conversations that are mainly filler, pointlessly repetitious and
going nowhere. And there’s the startling conclusion that seems totally out of
proportion to the lazy meandering of the story that precedes it. When a movie
ends, you’re not supposed to say, ‘huh?’ “Like Someone in Love” is bizarre and thoroughly
perplexing. What did I miss? Subtitles. 2/26/13
No comments:
Post a Comment