Modern Family: Part 1

The first of two solid recent releases, left over from late 2013:

THE PAST (A) - No one these days does family drama like Asghar Fahardi does. On the heels of "A Separation" two years ago, the Iranian filmmaker has once again crafted a masterful rendering of love and family dynamics.

The set-up is exquisite. Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) has gone back to Iran, leaving behind his wife, Marie (Berenice Bejo from "The Artist"), and her two daughters from a previous marriage. About four years have passed, and Marie has called Ahmad back to France to finalize their divorce, because she plans to marry Samir (Tahar Rahim from "A Prophet"). Samir has his own son, Fouad (the compelling Elyes Aguis), a beautiful boy with some emotional problems in the wake of the suicide attempt of his mother, who lies in a coma that she's likely never to recover from.

OK. Got it? Let's go.

The suspicion early on is that Marie is not completely over her estranged husband, because instead of arranging a hotel for his visit, she invites him to crash at her crowded house, in fact having him share a room with Samir's son, Fouad, the first night. Samir stays on the margins for the first half of the movie and lets his anger or jealousy simmer.  (He sports a great pout.) Ahmad, in his passive-aggressive way, seems to genuinely want Marie to have a shot with Samir, but he wants her and the children to be happy. When we first see Marie and Ahmad, they are trying to communicate from afar at the airport, but they can't hear each other through a glass barrier -- a quick establishing metaphor for their relationship. She sports a bandage on her wrist; a slight wounded bird that needs tending to.

Marie's teenage daughter, Lucie (Pauline Burlet), is not thrilled to be welcoming a third father into the picture, and she seems to be manipulating the proceedings by trying to wedge Ahmad between Marie and Samir. What exactly is happening only grudgingly becomes clear.

The second half of the film -- like "A Separation," it's leisurely but masterfully plotted, with a 130-minute run -- blossoms into a sophisticated slow-burn mystery, as secrets are revealed and relationships shift. Lucie definitely has been exploiting the unaddressed question of the house -- what was the true reason Samir's wife burst into his dry-cleaning store and drank detergent?

At one point, one of Lucie's alleged dirty tricks is revealed to Marie. Ahmad brings Lucie to Marie. The mother slowly approaches her daughter. You expect (hope for?) a hug; you get an attack. (Bejo doesn't hit a false note from beginning to end; she's perfect for the role of a sometimes shaky woman trying to make yet another relationship work.) And that jolt is a metaphor for what the master Farhadi does to us. Just when we think we're figuring things out, he adds a twist; when we let our guard down, he strikes at our emotions.

The final reel feels more like a series of codas, churning the plot deeper as he goes, until a final scene between two characters we don't expect to find hand-in-hand. It's an indelible image that caps a powerful film.