A film that can only be described as disappointing, A Separation begins uninterestingly and ends anti-climactically. As I have not seen the other contenders for Best Foreign Language Film I cannot comment on whether or not it deserved the Oscar. All I can do is report on what I didn't like.
Simin (Leila Hatami) wants to leave Iran to try and give her daughter Termah (Sarina Farhadi) a better life. However her husband Nader (Peyman Moadi) can't leave as he has to take care of his father with Alzheimer's. Simin leaves Nader as he refuses to go with her. Termah, in an attempt to bring her parents back together decides to live with her father. Nader hires a young woman named Razieh (Sareh Bayat) to be caregiver for his father. Nader does not know that Razieh is not only pregnant, but also working without her unstable husband's (Shahab Hosseini) permission. Coming home to find his father tied to the bed and Razieh nowhere around, Nader literally throws her out. Later he is charged with murder after she suffers a miscarriage supposedly caused by falling down the stairs.
The film ends with Termah being forced to choose between her parents. While Simin and Nader wait in a hallway for her decision the credits begin to roll. I am not against ambiguous endings when I care about the individuals involved. That's where my biggest issue with the film lies. It was immaterial to me if Simin and Nader get back together or if Razieh is telling the truth or what happens to Nader's father. The only characters I felt any sympathy or empathy for where Termah and Razieh's young daughter. They are unwillingly simply caught up in their issues of their parents. Beyond these two this is no such thing as a likable character.
The film is tedious and dull until we reach the catalyst, which even then is uninteresting. It doesn't so much forget the title of the film as much as it goes off on an irritating tangent from what could have been a film about how Simin and Nader deal with their conflict and the difficult decisions they must make. Perhaps someone who is fluent in the language being spoken would feel more of a connection with the characters.
There is one scene in the film that I enjoyed. It is the scene in which Nader confesses a truth to his daughter. For all you spoiler police don't worry I won't give too much away about it.
Like I said, I can't comment on whether or not it deserved the Oscar until the other films and I won't fault it for the typo-ridden subtitles. I'd rather see "threatening" misspelled several times than hear someone else dub the lines in English.
★★
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