Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami)

[Boner M]

IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843287/reference)

http://www.graffitiwithpunctuation.ne t/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/like-someone-in-love-poster.jpg

[plain]

so so good, can't wait for the discussion to brew.

[NickGlass]

Why isn't this on the IFC Center's site anymore? I thought it was being released on February 15th. Me worries.

[Boner M]

I wrote some words (http://sydneyfilmhappenings.blogspot. com.au/2012/08/miff-2012-review-like-someone-in-love.html) on this one too.

[B-side]

Like Someone in Love was... something. Probably the worst Kiarostami I've seen so far. Not that it's bad, but it just feels so frivolous. Kiarostami thrives in the margins, and this one tries to tap into a similar existential region as Certified Copy, but it's content to simply float by and gaze upon the subject rather than engage with it or explore it with any seriousness. The best sequence by far is near the beginning of the film when Akiko sits in the back of the taxi listening to her grandmother's increasingly desperate voicemails she was forced to ignore. There's a light charm, but it's frothy and forgettable. Little here seems destined to stick with me, and I'm really disappointed that I'm saying that.

[Rowland]

FYC: Best Jump Scare

[Boner M]

FYC: Best Jump Scare
I'd read there was one beforehand, and I'm a jumpy viewer, so I was on edge the entire film. Really added something, I think.

[Bosco B Thug]

so so good, can't wait for the discussion to brew. Weird that discussion hasn't brewed... this is the definition of an enigmatic film.

Saw this awhile ago. It's brilliant in retrospect, but I can't ignore that I share lots of Brightside's opinions about how it floats along the narrative without much incisiveness.

The opening 15-20 (?) minutes constitute a masterpiece. After that, it felt slack and uninteresting. Then the conclusion is one of the most interesting and quizzical things.

[Grouchy]

I liked this. I've gone from hating Kiarostami based on Taste of Cherry and The Wind Will Carry Us to enjoy his recent work greatly.

The thing that intrigues me the most about the ending is whether we're supposed to assume that the guy dies or is struck by the brick at all. Seemed to me like it plays more for the sheer effect of it than any real meaning.

[dreamdead]

Yeah, this one floated a lot, though I've found it incredibly interesting to consider since finishing it last week. I've read a few comments on the cab circling the grandmother as an inversion of a carousel--the design of that sequence is revelatory; so haunting with just fleeting glimpses of the grandmother while holding a focus on Akiko's face amidst her reflections on the audio.

The rest can't quite measure up to the cadences established early on, but the elisions of follow-through (do Akiko and Takashi sleep together?) make it more interesting. On some level that's classic Kiarostami by denying us easy resolution, but I think it works. And I was on edge when I realized that the film had less than two minutes to go and so little was resolved. Very disturbing climax, but I wanted a bit more of that tension sustained elsewhere. That said, I liked the undercutting of the Noriaki's threat to Takashi when he comes up to the car. That sequence in the car was a pleasant surprise to my expectations.

Good stuff, but still a fall from Certified Copy for me.

[max314]

Like Someone In Love rolls along with the meandering, suggestive melancholy of a late night jazz set – all the way through to its climactic clashing of cymbals.

A masterpiece.

★★★★★