---
title: "The Past: the reviews"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-past/reviews"
title_page: "https://film.one/film/the-past"
critics_score: 65
critics_reviews: 20
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Past (2013): what the critics said

Critics' score 65 from 20 reviews: 13 positive, 3 mixed, 4 negative.

Most critics come away admiring The Past, though few love it without reservation. The praise gathers around Farhadi’s handling of actors, and around Bérénice Bejo in particular, whose performance as a woman pulled at from every side is singled out again and again. Reviewers also credit the density of the family drama: the shared history, the secrets, the way the script sets out guilt and responsibility without taking sides.

The reservations are almost all about plot. Many find the late revelations contrived, the third act too eager to explain itself and the pacing slack in the second half. A Separation hangs over nearly every review, and most think this film the lesser of the two. The spread is wide. The AV Club regards it as a major achievement, while Sight and Sound and Time Out find it disappointing and heavy-handed, and Anthony Lane in The New Yorker finds its mix of chaos and gloom hard to endure.

## The AV Club — Mike D'Angelo

Rating A. 17 May 2013. Festival review. 

Hails it as a magnificent achievement and painfully precise disquisition on human messiness, dense with shared history, though noting some bluntness and similarity to A Separation.

[Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/cannes-2013-day-two-iranian-director-asghar-farhadi-c-1798238165)

## Little White Lies — David Jenkins

Rating 4/4/4. 26 March 2014. 

The critic praises Farhadi as a great humanist who builds credible characters with complex motivations, highlighting the film's immaculate study of marital disharmony and emotional ripple effects.

[Read the review](https://lwlies.com/reviews/the-past)

## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw

Rating 4/5. 27 March 2014. 

Farhadi confirms his place among cinema's true grown-ups with a pressure cooker of a relationship drama that is a tragedy of good intentions and wrong decisions. The critic singles out the film's severity and cerebral force, along with its intricate analysis of the agony of splitting in a loss-of-love triangle.

[Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/mar/27/the-past-review-peter-bradshaw-asghar-farhadi)

## Screen Daily

Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 17 May 2013. Festival review. 

Delivers another gripping, densely plotted drama of ethics, love and loyalty; confirms Farhadi as superb director of actors, but less resonant than A Separation.

[Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/the-past/5056283.article)

## Los Angeles Times — Kenneth Turan

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 19 December 2013. 

Farhadi has a passion for drama and a gift for realistic depiction of intense emotional situations, making “The Past” quite potent on its own terms as part family melodrama and part intricate interpersonal puzzle. A plot heavy with contrivances works due to the forceful direction and excellent cast, led by a convincing Bérénice Bejo.

[Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-xpm-2013-dec-19-la-et-mn-the-past-20131220-story.html)

## Slant Magazine — Jordan Cronk

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 17 May 2013. Festival review. 

Notes the film's complex narrative and strong sense of interior space as a stirring, impressively acted piece that extends Farhadi’s streak, though it strains toward melodrama at times.

[Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/cannes-film-festival-2013-the-past-review/)

## The Hollywood Reporter — THR Staff

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 17 May 2013. Festival review. 

Praises the nearly flawless screenplay that explores guilt and responsibility without taking sides, along with strong performances especially from Bérénice Bejo, in a low-key, superbly lensed family drama.

[Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/past-cannes-review-524560/)

## The New York Times — Manohla Dargis

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 19 December 2013. 

The film is a family melodrama and relationship story about love, loyalty, secrets and how the past haunts the present. Farhadi demonstrates a masterly gift for domestic drama through fluid filmmaking and strong performances, especially Bérénice Bejo’s thorny, layered one.

[Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/20/movies/the-past-with-berenice-bejo-directed-by-asghar-farhadi.html)

## Variety — Justin Chang

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 17 May 2013. Festival review. 

This is an exquisitely sculpted family melodrama with microscopic attention to character, performance and theme that maintains a powerful, authentically acted portrait of human truths. Farhadi’s sense of narrative construction can be almost too incisive, costing some focus and credibility in the final reels, with one mystery distractingly over-contrived.

[Read the review](https://variety.com/2013/film/global/cannes-film-review-the-past-1200482880/)

## Total Film — Andrew Lowry

Fi1m's normalised score 55/100 (inferred from the text). 24 March 2014. 

Farhadi's follow-up to A Separation moves the story to France but struggles with its plot of divorce and secrets, coming close to perpetuating rational man/hysterical woman stereotypes. Bérénice Bejo's devastating performance as the serial monogamist mother saves the film despite the arthouse trappings and silly late twists.

[Read the review](https://www.gamesradar.com/the-past-review/)

## Sight and Sound — Geoff Andrew

Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 17 May 2013. Festival review. 

The critic finds the film disappointing compared to A Separation, with contrived revelations, narrative clumsiness, and less resonance, though it has solid performances and assured mise en scène.

[Read the review](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/news/tough-acts-follow-past-stranger-lake)

## Time Out — Dave Calhoun

Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 25 March 2014. 

The film is intricate and mature but meandering, heavy-handed, and melodramatic; it lacks the tight control of A Separation and feels disappointing and underwhelming.

[Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-past)

## Vulture — David Edelstein

Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 24 December 2013. 

Finds the first half absorbing as an evocatively photographed soap opera but criticizes the later sluggish pacing, clunky twists, and imposed sense of hopelessness.

[Read the review](https://www.vulture.com/2013/12/the-past-movie-review-asghar-farhdi.html)

## The New Yorker — Anthony Lane

Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 9 December 2013. 

The director’s gift for pulling viewers deep into the story and conveying the burdens of minor lives remains unimpaired, though the Parisian setting feels more familiar and some symbolic choices seem calculated. The tangle of relationships grows knotted and the blend of chaos and gloom can feel hard to endure.

[Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/the-past-2)

## HeyUGuys — Lisa Giles-Keddie

Rating 5/5. 20 October 2013. Festival review. 

The film is an intense emotional drama about the remnants of divorce and family fallout, woven with a crime mystery element. It praises the claustrophobic family setting, standout performances especially from Bérénice Bejo, and Farhadi's script and direction as awards-contender material.

[Read the review](https://www.heyuguys.com/the-past-review/)

## Eye for Film — Richard Mowe

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 17 May 2013. Festival review. 

Farhadi's first French film explores murky family territory with themes of the past gripping the present, through heart-rending confrontations and understated beauty. It singles out Bérénice Bejo's tour de force performance as the woman torn apart from all sides.

[Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-past-2013-film-review-by-richard-mowe)

## The Playlist — The Playlist Staff

Rating B. 19 December 2013. Festival review. 

The film is a mature, complex and impressive melodrama with an intricately layered script and excellent performances, particularly from Bérénice Bejo. It complains that the third act slightly fumbles by providing too many answers and shifting to a more procedural tone.

[Read the review](https://theplaylist.net/review-asghar-farhadis-mature-complex-impressive-the-past-starring-berenice-bejo-tahar-rahim-20131219/)

## The Wrap — Ella Taylor

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 2 December 2013. 

The critic finds that Farhadi's excessive plotting distracts from his sharp observations of daily life and domestic relationships. She singles out his concrete depiction of the ebb and flow of imperfect information in family settings for praise.

[Read the review](https://www.thewrap.com/past-review-iranian-filmmaker-explores-divorce-european-style/)

## Digital Spy — Stella Papamichael

Rating 3/5. 28 March 2014. 

The critic finds Farhadi's domestic drama compelling in its character web and performances despite flaws in plotting and character motivations. Revelations become overly melodramatic and the central relationship insufficiently convincing.

[Read the review](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a556599/the-past-review-brnice-bejo-leads-asghar-farhadis-brooding-drama/)

## Paste — Christine N. Ziemba

Rating 7.9. 20 December 2013. 

The film explores the messiness of divorce and relationships transcending cultural boundaries through nuanced performances and subjective truths. It excels in character depth but suffers from overly meticulous pacing and excessive length.

[Read the review](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/the-past-1)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/the-past.md