Like Someone in Love

Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Year Released: 2012
Rating: 1.5

You can take Kiarostami out of Iran but you can't keep him from putting cameras in cars (he really, really likes putting cameras in cars). A prostitute/model (Rin Takanashi) meets a teacher/translator (Tadashi Okuno), he drives her around, she has an argument with her "boyfriend," the "boyfriend" fixes the old man's car, the "boyfriend" apparently attacks her and then goes after the old man's apartment, etc. - if you're waiting for an escape from the vagueness or anticipating character development and some semblance of a plot, you're dealing with the wrong exiled filmmaker. I still wasn't sure if the translator 'hired' the young lady to have sex with him (he seems like he'd rather drink wine than get to it) and the prostitute just seems like a troubled, difficult, cryptic mess - I'm opposed to spoon-feeding, but I sometimes get the feeling with Kiarostami he's playing this little shell game and everyone is supposed to be impressed with his coyness. Some are ... I'm skeptical.