Movie review - "A Separation" (2011) ***1/2

The art house darling of 2011-12, winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, a critical and festival fave... it's still one of the most stressful films I've ever seen. It reminds me of Crash where all the plots could have been resolved by politeness but instead bickering, a sense of honour and arguments lead to tragedy. However Crash was mixed up with moments of brightness and hope, this is all pretty grim. A middle class couple separate - he gets the kid and so needs to hire a housekeeper to look after his Alzheimer's ridden dad but she's pregnant and has to keep ducking out, and they argue and she loses the child and he's up for murder. That's a very brief description of what is quite an involved plot - it reminded me of good old fashioned intergenerational melodrama that was popular on stage and Australian cinema in the 1910s - family stories, with rich and poor, pregnancy, abusive, hot headed husbands, the most sensible people are women, the destructive influence of religion and honour. I think part of this is why it's been a popular film. That and the fact there is a real story - no repetition, each scene progresses the action - and the characters are three dimensional.

Well acted across the board, it all feels very real. It's an ugly looking movie - the city they live in is dirty and shabby, no one wears nice costumes, it's all dingy and bland. (You long for someone to visit a park, or a room with green plants or something). I couldn't help feeling it was a little over praised though.