La Séparation |
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“We might do one another in.”
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Director Starring |
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This isn’t a case of a film being other than what I thought it’d be. But it is other than I’d have it be: I go in knowing it’s an 85-min drama about a woman’s infidelity in which we never see the other man, and which begins with the simple premise of her pulling her hand away when her partner reaches for it in a theater. I’d have it be a Bergman-via-Allen chamber drama.
Alas, no — from the start I’ll settle for glossy light verite. It is absorbing though not for depth or truth — aside from what the actors bring to it — but for a certain honest simplicity. Ultimately it seems we do not meet the other man because it isn’t really the story of a separation, but that story from the man’s point of view. If I have any direct critique to make it is that the film tries a bit too hard to sway one into siding with him, into the “message” that custody law sucks. This violates that honest simplicity that is the film’s real strength — and which anyway doesn’t amount to much. No, the film doesn’t amount to much but it is a satisfying watch.
I often find myself hedging between two ratings and choose up or down based on one specific little thing: in this case the film gets the bump up because (spoiler, LOL) he never makes out with the babysitter. Unless he does after the credits: the existential anomaly of being passed over by two dozen cabs in a row seemed to persuade him to walk back to one woman or the other. Oh well! The film satisfies but doesn’t leave me with burning questions.
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