Certified Copy
IFC Films | Release Date: March 11, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
82
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsMar 10, 2011
Though it's dominated by two people walking and talking, after a point it's as difficult to parse what's real and what's constructed in Certified Copy as it is in the home stretch of "Inception" (although "Before Sunset" and Roberto Rossellini's "Journey To Italy" provide closer models). Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanMar 9, 2011
The end will haunt you. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnMar 7, 2011
A comedy of remarriage buried in intellectual abstraction and cinephilic obsessions, Certified Copy wanders a bit but never loses focus, with the only certainty being that its gimmick is genuine. Read full review
90
The New York TimesStephen HoldenMar 10, 2011
The Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami's delicious brain tickler, Certified Copy, is an endless hall of mirrors whose reflections multiply as its story of a middle-aged couple driving through Tuscany carries them into a metaphysical labyrinth. Read full review
90
Village VoiceJ. HobermanMar 8, 2011
Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy is exactly that: The Iranian modernist's first feature to be shot in the West is a flawless riff on our indigenous art cinema.
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 27, 2011
In some ways, it's a simple character drama, but the central conundrum disallows an uncomplicated interpretation. I was never bored. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisMar 31, 2011
You can see her (Binoche) effect on Kiarostami's filmmaking: She brings out something new in him, too. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMar 31, 2011
That this purposefully twisting exercise takes place amid the sun-burnished cypresses and towns of Tuscany - where ancient statuary is as commonplace as pasta and wine - only makes this playfully enigmatic meditation the more pleasing. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertMar 17, 2011
For me, it is too clever by half, creating full-bodied characters but inserting them into a story that is thin soup. Read full review
88
New York PostV.A. MusettoMar 11, 2011
Literate and engrossing, with excellent performances. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc MohanApr 7, 2011
A mental workout of the most invigorating sort. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMar 19, 2011
Despite the film's coy artiness and a lassitude that sometimes passes for soulfulness, Certified Copy is strangely haunting. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensMar 12, 2011
Certified Copy isn't the masterpiece that "Close-Up" was, but it lures the viewer into a comparably labyrinthine thicket of fakeouts, doubles, and assumed identities. If you like movies that induce a pleasurable state of vertigo, this is one of the great discoveries of the year. Read full review
80
Time OutDavid FearMar 8, 2011
Her (Binoche) award-winning performance is reason alone to dive into such intellectual gamesmanship. (She can suggest an entire emotional arc with one facial tic.) Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungMar 7, 2011
Binoche has a chance to display her noteworthy gifts as a comedienne, switching effortlessly from English to French and Italian to build a character that is resentful, manipulative and seductive all at once. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsApr 1, 2011
Although the film has elements of a puzzler by Michelangelo Antonioni and a psychodrama by Ingmar Bergman, it never becomes compellingly intellectual or unnervingly emotional. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyMar 24, 2011
Ultimately, Certified Copy – with its unresolved loose ends – is a puzzle box without a key. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMar 17, 2011
Later, as the picture becomes a Petrie dish in which James' theories are put to the ultimate test, Certified Copy loses some of its magic, but it retains interest as an appealing and one-of-a-kind experience. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenMar 10, 2011
A sort of middle-aged "Before Sunrise" unfolds, meandering and talky. But from the get-go these characters' colloquy is a mutual provocation, not a romantic seduction. Read full review
70
VarietyRob NelsonMar 7, 2011
More compelling as an intellectual exercise than an emotional one, Certified Copy finds deep-thinking writer-director Abbas Kiarostami asserting there's nothing new under the Tuscan sun, particularly not his own conventional romantic drama set in rural Italy. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenApr 28, 2011
The languages spoken throughout Certified Copy slide easily amongst Italian, French, and English, further creating the sense of none of them being authentic. Read full review
60
MovielineElvis MitchellMar 10, 2011
There's an enchanting, and very Western, musicality in Certified Copy, a mash-up that charms; Mad Decent - master masher, dj and producer Diplo's label - aptly describes it. (Diplo and Buñuel would've loved each other). Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineRichard MoweMar 7, 2011
The romantic fable of love, marriage, art and second chances may not add up to all that much but the journey is exquisite. Read full review
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