Past Lives Review
There is so much gray in this movie that it is hard to cohesively explain my thoughts and feelings about this film. One thing I can say from the onset, it’s amazing, and everyone should see this film.
Past Lives is the auto-biographical or at least semi-auto-biographical story of the writer/director Celine Song. In the film, Celine’s stand-in is named Na Young, later, Nora after she adopts an American name.
Na Young and Hae Sung are twelve-year-old friends living in South Korea. Na Young’s parents decide to immigrate to Canada, and Na and Hae do not see each other again for twelve years.
Then Hae looks up Na on Facebook but struggles to find her because she is now named Nora Young. They connect for a while until Nora realizes that if she is going to achieve her dream as a writer she had to move past this relationship.
They do not see each other again for another twelve years. No Nora is married to Arthur another writer and living in New York City. Hae is living in Korea but decides to visit Nora in NYC. This is really where the movie really ramps up.
The first impressive thing about this film is that it is Celine’s feature debut. There are only a handful of films that are this good for a director’s feature debut. She is in a special class of filmmakers.
The film is so good for several reasons but the biggest reason is her confidence in knowing the story she was going to tell and how she wanted to tell it.
That is the biggest struggle for filmmakers. Once you know that, you can hire people who know more than you about lighting or camerawork, or production design.
Celine’s script is so honest and true to life. Just like my thoughts on this film, this film sits inside a melancholy gray. Never swinging to black or white. Every person is complex, there are no caricatures.
Her film is relatable which makes it incredibly moving. It’s not about wishing for something different than what you have, but rather what your life could’ve been.
And again not in the sense of the grass is greener. Rather, where would my life be had I made a different choice in my life instead of the one I made which led me to be where I am?
My wife Madison and I have talked about this subject multiple times. The coincidences or chances it took for us to find each other feel more like it was fate rather than chance.
If our paths had not crossed we might still be happy in our life, but probably not as happy or content as we are now. Neither is good or bad, which is why it is all gray.
It’s talking about these things which make our bond grow stronger as well. I left the theater wanting to get home and give Madison a hug because I am so happy I found her.
It’s a film which is really tough to go into without spoiling the film, just know Celine lands the plane which is a very difficult act, nailing the third act of a story.
The performances are so good from the three leads. It asks a lot of the actors to do very internal acting which could come off as blank, but here it feels like you’re watching three people who have lived these lives.
If you are going to see one film this weekend or this week please make it this film. It’s spectacular and will lead you into deep conversations with your friends and loved ones.
4.5/5 Stars - Likely to become a 5/5 after a rewatch.
