Cannes Review Round-Up: "Certified Copy"

Next in the Cannes Review Round-Up is Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy starring Juliette Binoche. I know I said more or less the same thing yesterday about A Screaming Man, but Cannes may now have a new front-runner. Though it's difficult to glean plot details, what I've been able to gather sounds something like a more melancholy version of the Richard Linklater's brilliant Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. Awarding the film a grade 'A,' Film.com lavishes praise on the film, summarizing it as "An amazing film, and one worthy of our adoration." Eric Kohn of indieWire is quite kind as well, although he does stress the heavy amount of ambiguity, though praises the film in his conclusion by saying "Certified Copy wanders a bit but never loses focus, with the only certainty being that its gimmick is genuine." Time Out London, awarding the film 4 out of 5 stars, heaps further praise on the film, calling it the new "best film at Cannes so far." The reviewer, Geoff Andrew, goes on to say that the film builds to a beautiful climax "by way of a seemingly meandering but in fact very focused narrative held together by meticulous mise-en-scene," and concludes his review with a single word: "Superb." While still positive, Rope of Silicon is less enthusiastic, giving the film a 'B,' and saying that the amount of ambiguity in the film will be "a problem for a lot of people." Finally, The Hollywood Reporter's Deborah Young says that the film is a "sardonic reflection on marriage [that] is playful, engaging Euro art cinema under the Tuscan sun."

[current] Cannes Verdict: Uses its meandering structure to ask insightful questions that engage the head without ever forgetting to engage the heart.