Past Lives
Past Lives is playing in theaters at the time of writing. Rated PG-13. Common Sense says 13.
STORY: A+
The film opens in a bar. Two Korean adults in their mid 30s chat animatedly. A similarly aged white man sits next to them staring silently at his drink. The three form an odd group. We in the audience - and at least a couple other people in the bar - wonder how the three wound up there. How do they know each other? What exactly is their story?
Then in an instant, we’re swept twenty four years back in time to Korea. We meet the younger versions of Hae Sung and Nora, whose adorable friendship (and possibly more?) is torn apart sometime during their middle school years when Nora’s family decides to emigrate to Canada.
The story that follows is the decades-long answer to our question. Who are these three people in that bar?
Past Lives is a tender, elegant, beautiful story. Yet its most appealing and effective feature is the simplicity of its structure. The opening scene piques our curiosity to higher levels than we’ve ever experienced before. Every phone call, every missed meeting, and every decision that funnels this trio to those barstools sizzles with electricity. It’s storytelling at its finest.
PEOPLE: A
Even though Past Lives is a titanically emotional story, it’s the physicality of the actors’ performances that generates that emotion. Nora is extremely confident and incredibly driven. The way Greta Lee’s eyes and body language subtly reveal her doubts gives depth to a character that could easily be a stereotype.
If you’re someone who believes there’s no such thing as a perfect performance, the outstanding Teo Yoo might make you reconsider. The guy’s got a whole lot going for him. He’s handsome. He’s fit. He’s well dressed. But while he’s waiting for Nora in Central Park, he transforms back into the shy twelve year old kid he was when he first met her. He anxiously checks his hair. His shoulders slouch. He becomes small, desperately trying to hide although it’s impossible. Without uttering a word, we can feel the enormity of everything he’s feeling.
Making Oscar predictions in the middle of summer is a fool’s errand since dozens of films have yet to debut. Still, I have the feeling it will be a travesty if Greta Lee and Teo Yoo’s names aren’t announced early and often throughout awards season.
FILM NERD STUFF: A+
The camera movement in this film is extraordinary. It often bounces back and forth between Nora and Hae Sung, alternately placing one of them in the center of the frame. That causes our focus to bounce from one to the other, working as an emotional highlighter, gently marking one poignant moment after another.
Other times, it feels like the camera movement is reminding us that life is always in motion. Our lives never stop changing. The camera’s speed and its direction resemble the swirling smoke inside a crystal ball. It asks us, “Do you want to know the way life works? Just look here.”
LIFE IS AN ESSAY, I WANT TO WRITE IT ALL NIGHT LONG (Elective Class): A+
Normally, I’m a fan of multiple choice tests. Multiple choice questions have a single, neat answer. You’re right or you’re wrong. No room for debate or confusion.
Life is not like a multiple choice test. Life is more like an essay. In life the answers aren’t sitting there in front of you, waiting to be chosen. You need to forge your own path. There are many possible answers and all sorts of possible ways to get to them. And even if by lucky chance you know the answer you’re driving toward, millions of people just like you and me will get lost on our way there.
But the more I ponder this “life-as-scholastic assessment” metaphor, I believe that every once in a while life throws you a doozy of a multiple choice question that’s been designed by a bitter, evil wizard. These questions have two correct answers, but you’re only allowed to pick one.
The evil lies in how you would grade such a question. If you pick one of the correct options, should you get full credit for picking a correct answer? Do you only get half credit for picking one out of two? Or do you get zero points because you didn’t pick both correct answers (even though it’s impossible to do so)?
Past Lives is a story of two people trying to answer a life question like this. The theme of the story comes from Hae Sung’s and Nora’s decision of how they will grade themselves and spend the rest of their lives. Will they focus on the choice that was correct and find peace? Will they forever feel torn because they couldn’t choose both? Or will they live in eternal sorrow at not being able to have it all?
People sometimes feel complete devastation even when they make the right decision. Life - all of our past ones and the one we’re all spinning through together, right here and right now - can be tough.
FINAL COMMENTS:
Past Lives is no run of the mill rom-com. It’s miles more perceptive and profound. Of course we can’t wait to find out if they wind up together in the end. But along the way, the film explores the beguiling gap that exists between our ideas of who we think somebody is and the person they actually are. And also an even more intriguing gap - the one that twists and churns between who we think we are and who we actually are.