Asghar Farhadi's Muddled Voyeuristic Head Game
Variety • • entertainment
Key Points:
- Asghar Farhadi’s “Parallel Tales” centers on Sylvie, a French novelist portrayed by Isabelle Huppert, whose character feels more like a clichéd stereotype than a realistic figure, contrasting with Farhadi’s usual authenticity.
- The film diverges from Farhadi’s typical style, presenting a meandering and amorphous exploration of voyeurism and fiction versus reality, loosely inspired by an episode of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s “Dekalog,” but lacking its suspense.
- The narrative involves Sylvie spying on a neighboring apartment, which turns out to be a fictionalized version of reality, complicated further by her niece’s involvement and a young drifter who steals Sylvie’s manuscript, blurring lines between fiction and truth.
- Despite strong performances from actors like Vincent Cassel and Virginie Efira, the characters lack depth outside the film’s central fiction-reality gambits, resulting in a disjointed emotional impact.
- The film attempts to evoke classic voyeuristic thrillers like “Rear Window” and “Blow-Up” but ultimately frustrates the audience with its oblique storytelling and underwhelming parallel narratives.