I watched this last night and it had a pretty big impact on me, which came as a surprise. I got it out just because I'd seen the trailers on some other DVDs recently, not because I'd heard any rave reviews for the film itself. I found part of the film were very hard to take and I got more than a little mad watching it. In a way, my reaction was kind of in spite of the film, because at times the mustache twirling evil of this guy:
"Am I Eeeeeevil enough for you?"
was so cartoonish it made the narrative a bit hard to take seriously. The acting remained strong though and the film really drove home Bill Maher's statement from last friday (that I listened to for the first time on my iPod after I watched the movie) that western civilization isn't just 'different', it's better. I guess it goes without saying but as a woman alot of the stuff in this just about made my skin crawl, and I found myself frequently shouting at the screen, Harlem style. There are moments in the movie that are at least as powerful as any other I've seen in recent months
The Cast:
Jim Caviezel was barely in the film but he did OK, and otherwise the whole thing was pretty much Shohreh Aghdashloo's show. She is great and I think she kept me engaged in the story even if at times it seemed a bit heavy handed (it's from the people behind PATH TO 9/11, after all). I need to read more into the incident that sparked the film though because the film tells the story in the context that Aghdashloo is relating it to Caviezel, and telling him what happened. How she knows about conversations and such when she was not present for them is beyond me. So, I'm left to wonder how much of Soraya's story has been embellished to give character to someone who remains a bit of a mystery, or if there was some heavy forensic research that occurred after teh events in the film that verified what actually went down
"Am I Eeeeeevil enough for you?"
was so cartoonish it made the narrative a bit hard to take seriously. The acting remained strong though and the film really drove home Bill Maher's statement from last friday (that I listened to for the first time on my iPod after I watched the movie) that western civilization isn't just 'different', it's better. I guess it goes without saying but as a woman alot of the stuff in this just about made my skin crawl, and I found myself frequently shouting at the screen, Harlem style. There are moments in the movie that are at least as powerful as any other I've seen in recent months
The Cast:
Jim Caviezel was barely in the film but he did OK, and otherwise the whole thing was pretty much Shohreh Aghdashloo's show. She is great and I think she kept me engaged in the story even if at times it seemed a bit heavy handed (it's from the people behind PATH TO 9/11, after all). I need to read more into the incident that sparked the film though because the film tells the story in the context that Aghdashloo is relating it to Caviezel, and telling him what happened. How she knows about conversations and such when she was not present for them is beyond me. So, I'm left to wonder how much of Soraya's story has been embellished to give character to someone who remains a bit of a mystery, or if there was some heavy forensic research that occurred after teh events in the film that verified what actually went down
