Like Someone in Love

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Movie Details

• Genre: Drama
• Release Date: 2013-02-15 Limited
• Running Time: 109 min.
• Director: Abbas Kiarostami
• Cast: Rin Takanashi, Tadashi Okuno, Ryo Kase, Aao Miyazaki
• Producer: Nathanao«l Karmitz
• Writer: Abbas Kiarostami
• Distributor: IFC
• Official Site: Like Someone in Love Official Site

Rightly worshiped as a master worldwide, Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami lately has decided to take his show on the road. Three years ago he left Iran for the first time to make a film in Italy, Certified Copy, and now he's made Like Someone in Love in Japan. Both still bear a strong Kiarostami signature, relying less on contrived dramatic structure than on mindful, playful observation. Both look at how relationships -- or, rather, the roles people play in each other's lives -- tend to shift from scene to scene, alighting on temporary foundations, eluding both permanence and comprehension. The basic essence of Like Someone in Love is that a sociology student (Rin Takanashi) and her possessive boyfriend (Ryo Kase) drive around Tokyo with an elderly professor (Tadashi Okuno). The student is also a high-end escort, and the professor is also her client. Whatever else they know about each other, and whatever else we know about them, are matters of surmise. Kiarostami's gift is to make this all seem very inviting, at least until an abrupt ending in which the film seems to have cornered itself and quit with a shrug. Still, there's no shortage of wonder in the filmmaker's great intuition about just how long he can push a long take, or a concept. The acting is superb, and cinematographer Katsumi Yanagijima clearly is on board with Kiarostami's ongoing project, gathering whatever glints and shadows play across the glassy frontiers between the parallel worlds of art and life.