100% A Separation

All Critics (54) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (53) | Rotten (0) | DVD (2)

A downbeat family drama of no particular distinction gradually turns into a mystery that raises painful moral questions.

We can't believe our own eyes. How can we begin to pick one of the many competing narratives before us?

It's a deceptive, Hitchcockian mystery whose clues are laid out so carefully you'll probably miss them, and a complex philosophical fable in which every character is morally compromised.

It's a thrilling domestic drama that offers acute insights into human motivations and behavior as well as a compelling look at what goes on behind a particular curtain that almost never gets raised.

Sophisticated and universal yet deeply intimate, A Separation is an exquisitely conceived family drama that has the coiled power of a top-notch thriller.

It is a rigorously honest movie about the difficulties of being honest, a film that tries to be truthful about the slipperiness of truth.

So much fun to watch that you could very nearly miss the important fact that it is also as piercing a critique of Iranian society as that country has produced in some time.

There are no heroes or villains in this story: there are only everyday figures who try their best and struggle to survive.

One of the year's most engrossing films, directed by Asghar Farhadi from his richly layered screenplay (some advice: pay particular attention to what occurs in the sequence following the opening credits)

I know I wasn't expecting one of the year's best movies to come from Iran, but here it is.

While the specifics are rooted in Iranian culture, the broad strokes are entirely universal -- it's an intelligent, intriguing and inviting film.

grand metaphorical fiction that unpacks a weighty and involving story

Beyond the impeccable performances and direction, it's foremost an exceptional piece of screenwriting, so finely wrought that the drama seems guided by an invisible hand.

A richly written and performed legal procedural from Iran that enlightens as well as entertains.

More Critic Reviews

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_separation_2011/

rich rodriguez rich rodriguez the muppet movie the muppet movie mars rover mars rover trent richardson