The Royal Tenenbaums Review
by Robin Clifford (robin AT reelingreviews DOT com)June 19th, 2003
"Ten"
A young boy gets into his mother's car in Teheran. There is an obvious estrangement between the two and we learn that mom is recently divorced from his father, abandoning the boy to his dad. Now she wants to have her son back and he wants nothing to do with her. This is the first of 10 conversations that his mother will have over the next several days as we follow the lady behind the wheel in Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami's "Ten."
The camera is firmly anchored to the dashboard as the lady drives, first, her son, then a succession of others: her sister, an old woman making her way to the mosque for prayer, a young woman coming from the mosque, and a streetwalker who mistakes the lady for a man. Interspersed between hauling these other folks around are the drives she has with her son as she takes him to the local pool, to his grandmother's home and to pick him up from his father.
This may sound boring but, as the ten drives occur, our image of the lady dramatically changes. At first, with her son (and the camera stays solely on the boy), she sounds like a shrew as tries to tell him why she was right to get a divorce. He feels that she abandoned him and does not want to hear any more of her complaints against his dad. But, as she greets and meets the other passengers that she ferries about Teheran, her character reveals an increasingly complex nature and we see that she was in a troubled marriage with had little choice but to seek the separation.
The simplicity of the filmmaking allows the complexity of the lady's character to come to the forefront of "Ten." Mania Akbari, the striking young woman behind the wheel, develops her character to a remarkable degree from the perceived shrew, by her son, to a kind, intelligent and compassionate person by the end of the film. Her discourse with the others brings out this intelligence and understanding as she tries to help others avoid the pitfalls she has faced in life while giving friends, family and total strangers rides to their various destinations.
Her son, Amin (Amin Maher) also develops through the film as he, initially, turns a deaf ear to his mother's explanations as to why his family fell apart. As mother/son conversations continue over several rides, he starts to come around to her humor and love. By the end he almost, but not quite, forgives her but his opinions of his mother mellow.
The various conversations between the lady and her passengers have a natural feel to them as we learn about Iranian culture, the Muslim religion and plain old human nature. Kiarostami has a fine ear for dialog and his novice actors deliver their speeches in a convincing manner. Mania Akbari, in particular, gives a sense of reality as she converses with her passengers and deals with the day-to-day traffic problems, like finding a parking space on a busy street.
Abbas Kiarostami has created, for all of its filmic simplicity - static camera, minimalist settings and obviously from the hip filmmaking (you can watch as the curious drive by the lady's car and rubberneck) - has created a nicely complex character study that that I found to be very satisfying. I give "Ten" a B+.
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