Decision to Leave delivers the love story you never knew you needed. Here is our full review of the film everyone is talking about.
Heading into 2022 a lot of the chatter was on the big blockbusters but for us Decision to Leave was always on the radar, and it did not disappoint. Directed by Park Chan-Wook (Oldboy and The Handmaid’s Tale), Decision to Leave was expected to be a masterclass in filmmaking – and it was exactly that. The craft behind this film is seen through the lens of this movie. Every single shot is perfectly created, telling a story that some blockbusters lack within their entire two hour runtimes.
Decision to Leave follows a detective, played by Park Hae-il, who is investigating a man’s death. He develops feelings for the man’s wife through the investigation, leading to some very tricky situations. Though this sounds like a basic story, Wook is known for elevating every aspect of his films and it is no different here. Like previously mentioned, the visuals in this movie tell a story of their own and whether it is the color grading or the shot compositions, Wook and his cinematographer (Ji-young Kim) make everything look perfect. Even perfect is an understatement.
The other key aspect that elevated this film is the performances by our two leads. Park Hae-il plays the detective, who 100% deserves an Oscar nomination, and Tang Wei who plays the mysterious wife, who also deserves an Oscar nomination. On the surface each actor is great but as the movie progresses their performances also change.
Staying spoiler-free, we can go as far as to say that in different moments the subtleties change. The way they rub their hands when together compared to with other people is different. A lot of people wouldn’t notice these differences but it is small moments like these that kept us enthralled by the performances.
At its core, Decision to Leave is a love-story. It is marketed at a thriller and mystery, but the story surrounds two characters and their weird love predicament – and it is perfect. The love aspects are very underlying in the first act because of the pacing but as the second act picks up you can start to see where this one is actually going. Park Chan-Wook questions love and true love, happiness and complacence, and what living for others is worth. These are not themes you get in everyday mystery movies and many might write it off before they actually get invested into this story.
The pacing of this movie is also very unexpected. The final act doesn’t introduce dragons and stuff but in comparison to the tame and relatively textbook first act, the final third does take a nice change in feel that is so different but feels so right. Though the story is about love at the core, the pacing is similar to that of a mystery. The pacing could be compared to another 2022 movie like Triangle of Sadness, but the story isn’t anything like we’ve gotten this year. The protagonist is the main person we follow but he isn’t necessarily the one we need to care for.
The mystery allows us as viewers to feel mixed on the story and character choices. The suspense through the film is amazing. As much as it is a love story the thrilling elements are perfectly balanced through the film. Wook builds up characters through the first two acts so well but leaves so much unknown, specifically their motivations, which leave the audience not only questioning what characters are going to do, but where the story is even going. Nothing is ever handed to us and many times mystery movies are either super blatant or too ambiguous, but this finds the perfect middle ground.
Decision to Leave is filmmaking at its finest delivering some of the best performances, visuals, and moments in film this year.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
NEXT: The Inspection Review (2022 Movie)
About Decision To Leave
A detective investigating a man’s death in the mountains ends up meeting and developing feelings for the dead man’s mysterious wife in the course of his dogged sleuthing.
Decision to Leave is in select theaters now.
Aryan is an aspiring content creator and journalist who loves all genres of movies. He is passionate about discussing and having conversations about anything and everything pop culture related.