An Iranian man returns to Paris to finalize his divorce, where the relationships with his wife’s new beau and their children cause the movie’s complex struggle. As he so brilliantly showed in his last film (“A Separation”), director Asghar Farhadi has the ability to imbue even the most mundane moments with significance. As the conflicts develop, he elicits compelling performances from his entire cast (including the moving young Elyes Aguis). This is an intelligent writer/director: he lets the story unfold in small bits and never resorts to histrionics. There’s no music or any other technique to manipulate the audience, just solid filmmaking and an absorbing drama. (In French with subtitles.)
(4 / 5)