Certified Copy (2010)

  It took me like a week and a half to get through this movie, which is a shame because it deserved better.  It is exactly the type of pretentious film school snobbery that I love but I could not pay attention to because this week has been such a shitshow.

An author (William Shimell) travels to Italy to talk about his book, Certified Copy, and meets an antiques dealer (Juliette Binoche) who takes him to see a very famous copy of an artwork from Herculaneum.  Along the way, they are mistaken for a married but estranged couple and decide to role-play as that couple.  What's real and what's pretend quickly become blurred.

I basically watched this movie at 2x speed so I also read the Wikipedia article to make sure I hadn't missed anything.  That's where I learned that William Shimell is not an actor, he is an opera singer.  The director saw him in a performance and thought "that's my guy" and hired him.  Which is kind of neat. 

It's very much a walking-and-talking kind of movie where they discuss the nature of art, authenticity, and whether art has intrinsic value or if copies diminish its worth.  If that's not your thing, maybe give this a pass.  It's currently streaming on Criterion.  Like I said, I'd probably have enjoyed this if I watched it at literally any other point in my life.