"About Elly" seems like a rough sketch for "A Separation" (2011), one of the best films of the current century IMHO. In both cases, Farhadi's focused on social lies and deceptions and the ways they come back to bite us--as well as on the contrasts and contradictions between the lives and aspirations of contemporary Iranians and the restrictive social norms of Islam--but "Elly" 's not as tightly plotted or as involving. In many ways it's like typical film-festival fare from a non-Western country; it's a little hard to keep track of the characters at first, and it's not always clear why they're behaving the way they do.... The setup's intriguing: old college friends from Tehran--three married couples and their kids and a recent divorcé--and a slightly mysterious plus one, Elly, share a clapped-out weekend cottage on the Caspian Sea. At first everyone's acting goofy, singing and busting little Zorbalike dance moves.
Then something happens--two things really--and everything changes. The sky darkens, the sea gets rough, and husbands and wives are (almost literally in one case) at each other's throats. Suddenly these 21st-century sophisticates are chattering about evil portents and lost honor and fear of shaming; several layers of deception have to be unwrapped before the film's ambiguous ending. Expert cast (including the husband from "A Separation" and Nefertari from "Exodus: Gods and Kings" [!)]; the performances seem a little over the top at times, but that may just be a cultural thing; great cinematography. Certainly worth watching, prob'ly more so if you've already seen "A Separation."
