Gone Girl

ABOUT ELLY (2009) (A-minus) - This early film from Asghar Farhadi (made before "The Separation" and "The Past") is, for the most part, not about Elly, but rather all the people around her. It is a torturous unraveling of a little white lie among old friends.

Elly (Taraneh Alidoosti) is a schoolteacher who is recruited by one of her student's parents to attend a weekend getaway from Tehran to the Caspian Sea, a gathering of three couples (with kids) who know each other from college. Another pal of theirs, Ahmad (Shahab Hosseini), is visiting from Germany, having recently ended a relationship. It turns out that one of the women, Sepideh (Golshifteh Farahani), is trying to set Elly up with Ahmad.

Sepideh has pressured Elly to do this, even though, it turns out, Elly may be engaged (though unhappy and trying to end the relationship). Sepideh hides Elly's bag so she won't be able to leave, and she manipulates the situation in other ways -- the lodging she reserved was available for only one night, so the group ends up in an abandoned guest house, with limited amenities, for the weekend. The friends make do and have fun (they play charades), but there's no denying an underlying tension, some of which derives from the fact that the group told the property's caretaker that Elly and Ahmad are newlyweds in order to win her sympathy and the alternate digs. (Remember, this is Iran, where such behavior is rather scandalous.)

At the end of the first act, crisis hits. A child nearly drowns. Farhadi's handheld camera creates delirium and confusion, resulting in edge-of-the-seat suspense as viewers join the characters in wondering who is where and who is safe. As the crises eases, it turns out that Elly -- last seen on the beach with the children, flying a kite -- has disappeared. Did she drown? Did she run off, like she threatened to do? Was there a time jump? As the group tries to sort out what has happened -- and how Sepideh could have let it happen -- their camaraderie frays. Husbands and wives snap at each other and fight. Police ask questions. The group struggle to come up with a plan and a consistent story.

Sepideh and friends get in touch with a man who may be Elly's brother or fiance. His presence during the film's final act further threatens to tear the group apart. Who exactly is he? Might he know what happened to Elly? Can he be trusted?

Farhadi is a master at creating tension from routine human interactions. Here he is blessed with the striking Farahani ("Chicken With Plums," "Rosewater") who carries the film portraying the gradual breakdown of Sepideh, eaten alive from the inside by guilt. It's a riveting performance.

Farhadi also knows how to present an onion and peel it tantalizingly slowly. So much is in the set-up. He creates a knotty little situation and watches his characters react naturally.

This isn't a perfect film. It's not quite as good as his last two. It doesn't really merit a full two hours of running time. And there's a cultural gap I had trouble crossing; it's awfully quaint to think that, in modern times, a woman in Elly's situation would be so scandalized (especially in absentia) merely because some well-meaning friends tried to set her up on a sort-of date.

But "About Elly" takes a rightful place as the first piece of a mesmerizing trilogy from this Iranian auteur.

BONUS TRACK
The lovely closing music: