Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Year Released: 2010
Rating: 2.0
A philosopher (William Shimell) - who argues that replicas are just as valuable as (if not better than) originals - finds himself strolling around Italy with a woman (Juliette Binoche) who is either a fan or his spouse, setting up the question as to whether they are actually married or just pretend-married (and if they are pretend-married, whether it's just as real as if they were). It's certainly up to the viewer as to whether this premise is brilliant or not: I enjoyed many of the bits of conversation (especially Shimell's arguments about artistic authenticity and belief that the purpose of life is to enjoy yourself), but found it, for the most part, to be a trying game of semantics unconnected to reality not to mention an exercise in awkward "acting," with Shimell and Binoche directing their didactic declarations directly at the camera (it may not help that this is Kiarostami's first film in English and that he might not have the best handle on the language's 'flow'). It has a 'theatrical' feel to it, leading me to think of it as a poor copy of Beckett.
