Description: A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
This one was on my watchlist for a long time now, partly due to my reluctance to watch a movie in another language and partly because I thought the pace of the movie will be too damn slow.
But I finally manned up and decided to see for myself why this movie was rated so highly on my beloved IMDB.
The Story
Anything I say about the story will not exactly be a spoiler alert, but the strictly-spoiler-fearing people can skip a paragraph here because here is what the story is about. A married couple splits up because the hero wants to take care of his dad instead of leaving the country. As his wife leaves him, he hires a lady to take care of the dad and the lady screws up by almost killing his dad due to some negligence on her part. So, the hero gets pissed off and in an attempt to get the lady out of his house, he pushes her out the door. No big deal, only the lady is pregnant and consequently, suffers a miscarriage. The rest of the story is about how the lady's quest for justice affects the hero's family, all this attributed to the separation in the first place.
The Autopsy
Well, initially, as expected the movie starts off at maybe not a snail's pace but you feel that you have to wait for some time to know why the film was so well-appreciated. But it slowly revs up its engine and then starts to cruise along while managing to hold your attention with some subtle suspense and not-so-subtle emotions.
The movie also manages to give you a peek into the general lifestyle in Iran and a
s I had not watched many non-English movies, I was also mildly surprised at the strong religious beliefs expressed in it. Although it is an emotional drama, it never quite manages to take you to the realms of developing a lump in your throat right up until the climax.
What really impressed me the most about this movie is the wonderful way it was ended. All this time you are thinking whether the hero will be acquitted or not, but you realize that the movie is about something entirely different, something that you do not notice and the fact that you did not notice it makes it all the more touching.
Watch the movie, you will know what I mean. :)
The Verdict
I recommend that you watch it. With a little bit of patience. Just a little bit.
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