Grade: A
I often wish I could see some of my favorite movies for the first time again. I envy those whose first journey with certain ones is still up ahead. About two thirds of the way through Past Lives, I’d made up my mind that this was an extremely special movie, so I spent the remaining minutes just savoring, taking in, and remembering that feeling as much as possible. Because I only get one “first time.”
I’d say roughly 60% of the dialogue is in Korean, while the rest is in English. The almost equal presence of both languages gives us a rich metaphorical well to draw from. Plus, not to mention, it takes a gifted actor to speak both – and we have one, in 40-year-old actress Greta Lee. Watch her tone shift between the English and Korean segments, some of which happen in the same scene. It’s like two distinct love languages, and it must have been a fascinating acting exercise for her.
She plays Nora at ages 24 and 36 – but when we first meet her, it’s in South Korea, and she is 12. She and a classmate, Jung Hae Sung, have crushes on each other. Other than walking home together from school nearly every day, they only have one real date – when shortly after, her family moves out of the country. Cut to 12 years later. She is in New York City. They find each other on Facebook, and spark up a frequent video penpal friendship (maybe more). She doesn’t want to get too wrapped up in it and compromise her dreams of being a writer, so she suggests they not communicate for just a little while. As life marches on, he gets and loses a girlfriend, while she meets a fellow author (Arthur, an American guy), and they marry.
One of the aspects I admired about the movie is how open, undisguised, and forthright everyone is with each other. Nothing in the room gets an opportunity to grow into an elephant, because characters just come right out with their feelings. In a world where so many characters are written to be dishonest as a cheap stalling tactic for a contrived reveal at the end, the transparency in Past Lives is a refreshing thing to see. The vibe gets heavy and deep, but stops in the nick of time, when anything more would have taken us into pretentious Hallmark territory. The themes of potential love and roads not taken were explored earlier this year in Of An Age, a perfectly fine film. Past Lives goes farther, and emerges a magnificent one.
There are lots of little gems and treasures throughout. Observe how the camera takes a while to find “our” characters during a walk in the park. Or how the film doesn’t shy away from some pauses and silence, to allow a plethora of emotions to pass through. The ending serves up at least one brand of bittersweetness, as every character gets to be there for each other in some way. Past Lives begins with Jung Hae, Nora, and Arthur having drinks and chatting, while unseen Caucasian voices look at them and speculate about how they all might be associated. (“Which one do you think she’s married to? Maybe her husband is the other Korean, and the white guy is a tour guide?” etc) Then we get a “24 years earlier” title card – and we, the viewers, get the beautiful experience of finding out exactly how the three of them got to that bar.
Grade: A
Film Reviews by Mark 
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