Here Without Me (2011) User Reviews

Here Without Me is one of the best titles among Persian films

[s-zafarany · 9/10 · 19 October 2012]

At this time I just watched the title twice. Never write a review of a movie, but this one is different, I feel like I want to write my thoughts. Film begins with Ehsan in a bus heading to south in order to leave the country. And serious financial problems and lack of chances for advancement for the young is the cause. A young talented man wants to be a screenplay writer, but he can't and he believes he must get rid of this country and his poor family. Problem is, he really loves his mother and sister. The ones he can't ignore and wants them better fate. When he realizes that his sister had fallen in love with one of his friends, the other side of story began. No one can tell you the story better than the movie itself. No one can tell you the smallest details better than the movie itself. And nothing is better than storytelling of the movie. This movie, involves you. In fact, you believe every thing in the film's atmosphere, one by one, at every moment. Way of directing is awesome. Director wants you to go and sit alongside characters in their house. On the sofa! He just did his job well. It's my favorite moment. Back in the bus, he is going to leave the country for real, and he says: "I can't recognize what is real and what is not. Things happened with no regularity. I'm going to leave that home and I wont come back ever. This is gonna lead me see the real." Then we follow the story to the end. You think the film is honest with you and there is just one story line. But you are wrong. You are not a good audience! The film will tell you two separate stories. One is gonna end happy. One is .... you go and watch. But the way you see things, is brilliant! The ending is best in the history of Iranian cinema. The conclusion of this drama is better than better than better. One more thing! The acting is just real. That's all. Except Mother's roll that is a little bold and exaggerated. Motamed Aria is a good actress but not good enough in comparison with Saber Abar and Negar Javaherian. Motamed Aria won the award of an American festival, but the fact is something else. Believe me, she is away from an Iranian mother who cares a lot about her children. Ehsan is real, Yalda is real, but she is not. Everything else is OK. Locations, camera, decoration, sound, music, editing and every thing is just OK. That does make sense, doesn't it? The last scene of the movie is so important. The way you can recognize what was true, and what wasn't. When everything is right in a movie, you can call it masterpiece. But something isn't right in this one. So I think 9 out of 10 is very best score. That thing isn't right in a dialogue. At one moment, mother and Ehsan sitting together. The point is, mother's feelings. She stands at the end of the line. She had a fight and ejected from her work. She ask her son a cigarette. She hate cigarettes! But she does not know what to do any more. Then she asks: "Was you serious about suicide?" He responds: "No I wasn't!" THIS: "NO I WASN'T" can destroy whole story. But the last scene save it! You wont miss this one. YOU WONT. Well done Bahram Tavakoli. Really good job. Thank you for sustaining my bad English.

The Dreamers

[corrosion-2 · 9 September 2011]

Here Without Me is a free adaptation of Tenessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. The writer-director Bahram Tavakoli has skilfully & successfully changed the setting to Iran. The characters though are unmistakably Williamsian: dreamers trying to escape from the harsh realities of life. The mother (Fatemeh Motamed-Aria) dreams of finding a husband for her crippled daughter (Negar Javaherian). Her son, & the main breadwinner in the family (Saber Abar) hates his job in a warehouse & really wants to be a poet. He spends most of his free time at the movies. When, at his mother's behest, he invites his best mate (Parsa Pirouzfar) to dinner at their house, it appears that a suitor may have been found for his sister.

Here Without Me showcases an acting master class. All the actors are excellent but the two female leads are outstanding (Motamed-Aria won the best actress award at Montreal Film Festival). Though it is difficult to escape the film's theatrical origins, on the whole this is a very successful adaptation which compares favorably with the best Hollywood adaptations of Williams's works. Recommended.

They only live twice...

[khodam · 10/10 · 29 July 2011]

I haven't read Tennessee Williams' play The Glass Menagerie , so far , so I can't comment on the film as an adaptation. I enjoyed this version , and I'm sure that I'll read the play . The plot was good enough to make me and all the people in the cinema satisfied .

All the cast were amazing and Saber Abar acted like a star again . His work has really progressed and is full of emotion . He shows that he could play such roles ; Sad , forlorn and sometimes irascible and sorehead , as we saw him in About Elly (2009) . Negar Javaherian had shown that she is able to deal with such roles ; What she played in Gold and Copper (2011) was also a masterwork as an M.S patient , and also her different work in Before the Burial ( Tanha do bar zendegi mikonim (2008) ) as Shahrzad a young , active and hopeful girl who made a different view of life for Siamak (Alireza Aghakhani). Parsa Pirouzfar and Fatemeh Motamed Aria were also well acted .

The music was also mesmerizing and I really love it , particularly the music at the end of the movie which unites folk and modern musics .

And about cinematography ; I liked it too . hand-held camera without being jerky could help the director and his cameraman for showing stress and suspension in some scenes .

Overall , this film was one of my favorites among the films I saw in the cinema this year . I'm sure that I'll buy and watch it when its DVD released .

It would be naive to call this a family movie

[koofrety-1 · 10/10 · 21 January 2022]

My whole point is you usually call a movie in a family genre, when it's made by Disney around the the idea that "it's gonna be alright" or even "what a beautiful life" or some other nonsensical notion you'd want to convey.

Inja bedoone man shows the last few struggles of a family who conclude they should all commit suicide together.