Emotional Growth and Other Joys of Abbas Kiarostami's Like Someone in Love

Abbas Kiarostami continues to amaze me.  He has a way of enlightening the viewer with his character's interactions and nuances.  An issue of Cineaction a few years ago alluded to this:  the idea of "emotional priming" in his films, where you as a viewer become more whole, self- and world-aware as a result of watching them.   His films prime us through his characters' ways of conversing and interacting with the world around them and the emotions they convey.

This obviously is achieved through the selection of the right actors, the right amount of rehearsal, and a strong screenplay.  But, there is also an element of improvisation in this and other Kiarostami films.  This improvisation is found not only in the nature of the acting and character interaction, but in the "jazz-like feel" of the entire film.  There are little quirky flourishes and accents placed at various places throughout the film that give it extra character and nuance.  This might be a scene that seems to have no motivation, a focus on some element that seems ambiguous or odd, or an eccentric action or plot feature.

Kiarostami has a lot of love for his characters.  He treats them with dignity and respect, allowing them to grow as the film progresses and take on a certain humanity.  He demonstrates with Like Someone in Love a refusal to resort to ethnocentric biases: focusing on a country outside of Iran where he is from, he shows a world-centric outlook that pushes him into the realm of a truly global director.

This film doesn't offer easy answers or traditional, Hollywood-style, conventional endings.  This is what makes Abbas Kiarostami one of the most interesting and emotionally-resonant directors of our time.