Certified Copy

Certified Copy, the first English-language film by the Iranian writer-director Abbas Kiarostami, is a road-trip meditation on the complexities of marriage. Like almost all the work by this 71-year-old icon of the international film festival circuit, it reveals itself slowly, keeping us hanging and distracted for the entire first act before the key issues are laid bare.

The tale plays out in Tuscany and centers on a transplanted antiques dealer named Elle (French star Juliette Binoche, whose performance won the Best Actress Award at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival). When we first meet her, she is attending a lecture and book signing by visiting writer James Miller (opera singer William Shimell, in his first film role). Miller's latest book, Certified Copy, is about distinguishing copies from originals. Though the book ostensibly deals with issues of art, it becomes clear through his lecture and his later dialogue that he feels the same rules apply to the dreams and ambitions of individuals.

Elle seems mesmerized by the tall, silver-haired speaker, but thanks to the whining of her hungry ten-year-old son, she must leave the lecture before it ends. But a quickly written invitation brings them together after all. Though the meeting is supposedly for the purpose of discussing the issue of artistic "copies" that she has in her own store, the two are soon driving to a place that Elle knows well—for strong coffee and light flirting.