Certified Copy review

Directed by Abbas Kiarostami. Starring Juliette Binoche, William Shimell.

Can a copy substitute the real thing? That’s the question posed by director Abbas Kiarostami’s latest film, Certified Copy (aka its international title, Copie Conforme).

An English author, James Miller (William Shimell), comes to Italy to promote his book on the subject of the relationship between originals and copies in the world of art. At the lecture he meets a French gallery owner (Juliette Binoche), and accepts an invitation from her to explore southern Tuscany for a few hours.

Initially, the two spend time enjoying each other’s company over intellectual debate. He doesn’t believe original works hold any superior integral value over their reproductions. He explains, citing a painting of a young woman, “What is a painting anyway? A reproduction of the beauty of the girl.” She disagrees, taking him to a local art gallery where a reproduction was mistaken as an original for years.

Then shit gets crazy. The pair then goes to coffee, where they are mistaken for a married couple. And they run with it. The remainder of the movie is spent with them completely acting like a married couple of fifteen years. They pose with a newly wedded couple. They visit the hotel room they “spent their honeymoon in”. They bicker over botched anniversary plans. They become a living, breathing example of Miller’s theory.

Above all, Certified Copy serves as a vehicle for Juliette Binoche. Her performance is tremendous. As the movie progresses, we see her subtle transformation from eccentric art buff to suffering housewife. She is quite believably insane. For this performance, she much deservedly won the “Best Actress” award at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

Not quite as experienced, opera star William Shimell doesn’t show quite the same prowess on camera. His transformation is more abrupt, arriving dramatically by means of disappointment over the wine at a restaurant.

Towards the end of the film, James remembers that he much catch his train. Reality begins to set in again, as her quote from earlier rings true, “The sweeter it is at the start, the more bitter it ends. Things change.” The copy, it seems, is no replacement for the original.

The film’s most arresting scene takes place in the café, right as the transformation to married couple begins. She (Binoche) lies to the older waitress, who mistakes the couple to be married. When she asks why James doesn’t know Italian, she explains, “He’s not into languages.”

The waitress goes on to talk about her thoughts on husbands, men, and working. She explains that men are wired to overwork, and women should not be upset if their marriages don’t turn out exactly as they’d hoped. She continues, “It’d be stupid of us to run our lives on ideals.”

Certified Copy uses a unique approach that I can appreciate. The on-screen transformation of the acquaintances-into-friends is a fascinating, and at time hilarious way of discussing a could-be boring subject for a feature-length film. The film is intellectual, but never waivers too far into the realm of dullsville. And Binoche is fantastic. A great film.