Ian Curran’s review published on Letterboxd:
“…We’ll meet another day, another time
It ain’t the leavin’
That’s a-grievin’ me
But my true love who’s bound to stay behind…”
There’s a world of difference between leaving and being left. Both are painful, don’t get me wrong, but theres an excitement to leaving that you just don’t get when you’re the one being left.
Whether you’re the one doing the leaving or the one being left, a goodbye invariably creates a gap that both parties must contend with.
PAST LIVES is a beautiful look at the gap left behind by two childhood sweethearts whose romance never left the realm of fantasy. The gap our two distant lovers are contending with is the what-ifs and what-could’ve-beens if only real life hadn't gotten in the way. What they are both coming to terms with, and simultaneously grieving, is the acknowledgment that their time has passed, and the gap between them will never be closed, at least not in this life.
I have to say I really enjoyed this, but I was shocked by how unimpactful the emotion of the 3rd act was; it hit me like a feather. The first two thirds of the movie were so beautiful and visually comforting—it felt like there was no darkness in the movie, not even when it was actually night time.
There was also a groundedness and show-don’t-tell quality that I loved. But the final 3rd slips into unnecessary exposition of the spirituality and kismet of love that feels at odds with what came before. It also gets a little ponderous for me, and that amazing lived in quality of the first two acts feels like it gets replaced with a kind of flirtatious daydream of unrealised love and obnoxiously understanding husbands.
Haha still really liked it though.
