In the best of the year’s many broken-family dramas, Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) surgically probes the invasive lure of cheating and corruption—and the cost of integrity—in a crooked culture.
Outwardly, Romeo Aldea (Adrian Titieni) seems to be prospering, with a successful medical practice and a talented daughter bound for Cambridge. But his home life is hollow, compromised by a thinly-concealed affair. And in his larger world, where favors are currency, there are oblique discussions about arrangements between people who don’t do that sort of thing, except when they do.
Mungiu makes a queasily plausible case for a seemingly victimless exchange—one to thwart rather than perpetrate an injustice—but the better case is made by the women in his life: Sometimes it’s better to follow the rules and accept the consequences.
—Steven D. Greydanus, National Catholic Register
Arts & Faith Lists:
2017 Arts & Faith Ecumenical Jury — #6