Film Review: Past Lives

Life is made up of decisions, both big and small, and what can feel inconsequential in the moment can have life long ramifications. From the decision to befriend a class mate to moving to a new country, changing the course of ones life by any degree presents limitless opportunity. In Past Lives, we watch Nora and Have Sung, two childhood friends, as their lives become entangled in ways they are not sure they could have predicted.

As mentioned, Nora and Hae Sung are childhood friends, and seem to be leaning towards something more. However, that moment is fleeting as Nora’s family emigrates to Canada. 12 years later, the two reconnect through Facebook and begin video chatting. However, Nora makes a big decision that send the two down diverging paths. 24 years after they first parted, they are reunited in person when Have Sung takes a trip to New York, forcing the two to reckon with the past to see what the future may hold.

Writer director Celine Song debut could not have gone more swimmingly than this film. She manages to render so much humanity with her script and understanding of character interactions, and then shows them in the best light with her direction. You certainly never feel as though the film is going to spin off in strange directions, when it certainly could have, and Song’s sure hand and ability to draw out performances make this a winning debut.

The movie is almost all about the what ifs and words unspoken, which means it’s a titanic task for the actor to be able to convey these complex emotions without being showy. Greta Lee and Teo Yoo are a masterful pair. Each actor brings an incredible clarity to their characters, even as the other characters in the film and the audience are trying to sus out their motivations from moment to moment. It’s really superlative work from them too. John Magaro, as the husband to Greta’s character, has perhaps the most unenviable task in playing a man who may or may not be standing in the way of their destiny, but never plays him broad or unlikable. He may have our sympathy, but never our pity, and that’s really a testament to his performance.

Perhaps the unsung hero of this film is the cinematography. This is an intimate dram so to be ultra showy would detract from the tale, but that doesn’t mean cinematographer Shabier Kirchner is phoning it in. In fact, he slowly works within the canvas Celine Song wants and slowly draws us in until the moment he gets to stand on his head, to steal a hockey phrase, with the climactic bar scene, a master class in framing and using cinematography and shot composition to aid the storytelling.

Past Lives is a quietly observed but intimately studied film that really sticks with you. I find myself thinking about different small moments in the film as if they’re films unto themselves because of the emotional purity that Celine Song brings to this story.