180 Degree Rule (2020) User Reviews

There are better Iranian films

[chong_an · 6/10 · 18 September 2020]

A teacher from Iran is about to go to a family wedding in the rural north. Her husband, already not particularly keen on the trip, has to fly off on last-minute business, and forbids her to go. She nevertheless goes, taking their young daughter along. Returning, she has to lie to her husband, with the help with her Tehran-based family.

There is a sub-plot about one of her students, and together show the status of women in Iran. But I am not keen on family secrets and lies, and really dislike the ending.

the film is well divided into two halves

[parvasnan · 5/10 · 16 September 2023]

The movie was produced in 2018, and after watching it, I got closer to the feeling that why did Pejman Jamshidi waste his time on football? The movie is well made and has a predictable ending. The director has made good plays even though he made his first feature film. However, the expression of some actors such as Azita Hajian and Sahar Dawlat Shahi is sometimes such that their voices are not heard at all. The narrative moves very slowly, but the film is well divided into two halves, and in one half the narrative takes place, and then a crisis occurs, and at the end, with the crisis, the film moves forward. The markings of the film are also not very interesting, although the existence of places such as school or a teacher's job for the first character of the film is not very clear. Overall, it is a good movie.

Two stories built around white lies, both exploding in everyone's face, both showcasing the lowly position of women in Iran. Alas, the second story falters, seems underwritten

[JvH48 · 6/10 · 25 November 2023]

Saw this at the Imagine film festival 2023 in Amsterdam. The main story is built around a convoluted web of lies, going far beyond white lies to protect someone's feelings. It is bound to explode in everyone's face. The sheer number of participants in the lie alone make the plot doomed for failure. Nevertheless, the positive aspect of the story is that it emphasizes the standard way women are treated in Iran as subject to their husbands, rather than autonomous beings in their own right. It is clear to me that the filmmakers wanted to precisely demonstrate that, using this story as a vehicle. And in that point of view, this movie has a purpose and a message.

I regret the underwritten story of the student confessing to teacher Sara that she was pregnant. It was a promising sub-plot, while she at the same time forbade Sara to inform the parents. Like the main plot, a white lie impossible to maintain for good. Sara promised to keep the secret, under the condition that the student would inform her family while underway for an abortion.

The story about the pregnant student disappears under the radar until very much later in the running time. Near the finale we learn about a heated argument under a bridge, leaving the student killed. We see Sara telling the student's mother that she knew about it (and had an idea who the father of the unborn child was), all this via the doorbell's intercom without really meeting the student's mother.

Halfway the running time, I was assuming that the earlier student's confession was intended as a cliff hanger, to be picked up and integrated in the story to arrive at an uplifting end of the movie. But alas, that did not happen, and the story faltered. Given the modest length of 83 minutes, this sub-plot could have been exploited much better, allowing us to leave the theater in a better mood than the current ending did, leaving everyone involved as a looser.

I scored only 3/5 for the audience award when leaving the venue for two reasons. Firstly, letting falter a promising sub-story with the student that could have provided a much better finale, both based on white lies, both defeating their purpose. And secondly, the too convoluted web of lies in the main story, unrealistic to uphold, by letting all family members conspire against Hamed.

weak and shallow

[mbrcf · 3/10 · 28 December 2020]

Being one of the numerous spawns and children of Farhadi's social, tense dramas, 180 Degree Rule fails in every shade and layer in which the latter succeeded. The tragedy and the events leading to it are shallow, forced and imprecise as an idea or set of ideas that fail to properly culminate the film's storyline. The acting is questionable, with the most curious casting of the male lead actor P.Jamshidi who know more about football than serious acting and whose presence is almost comedic, completely out of tune with this otherwise grave film. There are some bright moments in this film, some qualities scattered here and there, but the project as a whole is a failure.