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- 2013
- Not Rated
- IFC Films
- 1 h 49 m
- 2013
- Not Rated
- IFC Films
- 1 h 49 m
Summary Abbas Kiarostami, the writer/director of the critically acclaimed "Certified Copy," travels even further afield from his native Iran for this mysteriously beautiful romantic drama filmed entirely in Japan. Like Someone in Love revolves around the brief encounter between an elderly professor (81-year-old stage actor Tadashi Okuno, here pl...
Directed By: Abbas Kiarostami, Banafsheh Modaressi
Written By: Mohammad Rahmani, Abbas Kiarostami
- 2013
- Not Rated
- IFC Films
- 1 h 49 m
- 2013
- Not Rated
- IFC Films
- 1 h 49 m
Like Someone in Love
76
7.2
Summary Abbas Kiarostami, the writer/director of the critically acclaimed "Certified Copy," travels even further afield from his native Iran for this mysteriously beautiful romantic drama filmed entirely in Japan. Like Someone in Love revolves around the brief encounter between an elderly professor (81-year-old stage actor Tadashi Okuno, here pl...
Directed By: Abbas Kiarostami, Banafsheh Modaressi
Written By: Mohammad Rahmani, Abbas Kiarostami
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 31 Critic Reviews
76
71% Positive
22 Reviews
22 Reviews
29% Mixed
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 31 Critic Reviews
76
71% Positive
22 Reviews
22 Reviews
29% Mixed
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Like Someone in Love, is another miracle at close quarters. Its subject is the impossibility of intimacy in the modern world: chewy stuff, to be sure, but Kiarostami explores it with a depth and delicacy that recalls the Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu.
The characters’ painful inability to connect only endears them to us, and somehow the film seems, like any human object of our affection might, more vivid and more knowable in its absence.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 36 User Ratings
7.2
72% Positive
26 Ratings
26 Ratings
14% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
14% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 36 User Ratings
7.2
72% Positive
26 Ratings
26 Ratings
14% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
14% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
The film's craziest, most easily mocked character emerges as the one most fully alive. Old Kiarostami, master of paradoxes, is set in his ways, but his ways are never set.
Like Someone in Love is a movie that never quite lets you through to the other side of the glass, but it’s dazzling to watch whatever drifts by on the surface.
Is this the stuff of gripping drama? Not at all. But like nearly all of Kiarostami’s films, it’s the stuff of good conversation.
A glimpse into how three different definitions of love can find themselves quietly at odds, the interactions between our three leads are always convincing if not always compelling.
It is a beautifully shot, and very nicely acted beginning to something: but finally frustrating.
There's a message buried in this film. I know that.
But what is it? That I'm not really sure.
The characters and their story are not something I could classify as hollow, or simply dissenting, but they're clearly characters who don't have a very explicit definition.
We know very little about them, both at the beginning and at the end.
Their motives are not transparent, their expectations and therefore their longings do not seem defined either.
The story is simple in nature, but I can tell you clearly that it's constructed in order for you to interpret it your own way.
I can't deny the director was perhaps very sure about what he was doing and what he was trying to say, but the film he delivers never seems to establish that.
Its own ending so open, so strange and so abrupt is proof enough that Kiarostami wants you to seek your own conclusions.
Whether or not you are right, I think is the least important issue.
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Again, a weird movie. Not necessarily bad, per say, but definitely not for everyone. I for once, weren't that bothered by the way it was shot. I would qualify it as a bit pretentious, lazy kind of scene development. Things like fixed cameras for too long, unnecessary events that take time, prolonged looks and mimics and overall very small total count of scenes. You are going to feel the low budget (scene-wise), but the good news is that the acting is as natural as I can imagine - all the performances are great.
And while it is definitely a slow movie, it somehow succeed to keep me hooked, probably because of the intense dialog and unexpected developments. So, yes, it was entertaining for me, but there is a BUT and it goes like this:
I don't like it as a whole, because it didn't really go anywhere. It happens to make a common mistake, similar to other movies - it hooks you with the questions you are going to ask yourself, but never actually bothers to answer any one of them. 6 out of 10 praising the strong acting and character's intensity.
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Why, exactly, does the elderly retired professor request a call girl? Why is he so taken by the girl, who is quite dim and vacant? Why doesn't he ask questions that would help him to actually understand her situation? You may or may not formulate theories to answer these questions, but in any case, no one in the movie seems to be "like someone in love."
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Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami travels to Japan for this film about a young hooker who becomes involved with an old professor. Any movie that starts with a long, inert first scene is gonna be slow, but this one takes the prize. First is a restaurant with 2 locked-down cameras for 10 min. Second is in a cab for 15 min, while listens to 8 voicemail msgs. You get the idea. At one point the old man fell asleep behind the wheel of the car for more than a minute. All sequences take place in real time with static camera and low key performances. I had plenty of time to answer a few emails and not miss a thing (even in subtitles) and may be the only person in Richmond to see this. It does have a pretty surprising shaggy dog ending.
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Production Company
Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC),
Euro Space,
MK2 Productions
Release Date Feb 15, 2013
Duration 1 h 49 m
Rating Not Rated
Genres
Awards
Asian Film Awards
• 3 Nominations
Japanese Professional Movie Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Cannes Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
