Movie tip: 'A Separation'

This release from Iran won this year's Oscar for best foreign language film, and you can certainly appreciate why it deserved that honor. "A Separation" is a thoroughly involving drama, dynamically crafted by writer and director Asghar Farhadi. The actors, too, are flawless as they delve into this tale of familial relationships, class, religion, and, most of all, lies. The movie opens with a wife asking a judge for a divorce. The husband (Peyman Moadi) needs to stay in Iran to take care of his Alzheimer's-stricken father. The wife (Leila Hatami) wants to leave the country to provide a better life for their 11-year-old daughter. Ultimately, they separate rather than divorce, and when he hires someone to take care of his father during the day, things spiral.

- KRISTINA DORSEY