Really Surprised!

Memorable, crazy movie

As Good As It Gets

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Although there is probably some room for improvement, Ararat remains a thought provoking and intelligent piece of art filmaking from the bizarre mind of Atom Egoyan. It is regarded as a fairly controversial film, some loved it, some loathed it. Perhaps it was too closely compared to his masterworks Erotica and the Sweet Hereafter. It is a very different movie. Ararat is Egoyan's strange memorial to the Armenian massacre committed by the Turkish during WWI. Ironically, Egoyan's script features a handful of people attempting to make a feature film about that. Ararat zooms in on an art historian, who has been hired as a historical adviser for the feature. Her son has just returned from the motherland having shot some second unit footage, or so he tells the customs officer when asked what is in the containers he is carrying. Convinced that the boy is smuggling drugs, the officer takes him behind an starts questioning him. What he gets in more than a few answers from this kid. He gets a whole history of a people that to this day Turkey denies have anything to do with.One thing about Egoyan's movies is that they set challenges for the actors. While Ararat is less dimensional and creative with character development than previous films, the acting is nonetheless impressive. The narrative is a little messy, but not as the result of bad filmaking. Rather it is the result of a director's choice, trying to put some distance between the viewer and the screen. That may sound odd, Egoyan is an odd director, but one with method in his madness. See Ararat and decide for yourself.

I have seen directors who have a hard time leaving things out of their films; John Sayles comes to mind. Egoyan would have made a great picture if he could just have left the Gorky material out of the final script: it just doesn't fit, and slows down the pace considerably. Otherwise, the film-within-a-film idea works fine (as it did for Truffaut in Day For Night) and the actors do a good job. Celia's character is enigmatic at first, her behaviour around Ani very erratic, but as we get to hear more about her past the pieces fall into place. Raffi is an appealing hero--his blend of idealism for his Armenian heritage, longing for his dead father and wish to get out from under his mother's petticoats was well brought out. Christopher Plummer as David the customs agent was the best player: his fifty years of professional experience in acting served him well here. He is so sly, thoughtful and unexpectedly compassionate that I was bowled over.Every year on or around April 24, there is a demonstration outside the Turkish Embassy by members of the Armenian diaspora. I live on that street and have heard the speeches and response from the crowd many times. This film will help the message get out.

I wanted to see this movie because of 2 reasons-one, to learn more about the Armenian genocide and second, I've been told that Atom Egoyan is a very good director. Unfortunately i must say I've been disappointed in both cases. First of all even thou the movie is about the Armenian genocide, it's not focused on it but constantly shifting to some characters that don't contribute anything to the story(like the step sister and the custom officer)and half of the film just dealing with and developing this characters. And about Atom Egoyan's abilities as a director I've been disappointed the same, the acting is pretty bad, the music isn't good either.

I enjoyed the film's thoughtfulness. There was a lot of symbolism (a lot) and metaphors used in the film. Egoyan also used wonderful transitions form one scene to the next which made me admire his creativity.I thought the movie was very fair to Turks. It wasn't a simple history movie, it was about the complex relationships people have with one another and within themselves. There were many occurrences that were told through various eyes, and we saw how the story would manifest depending on who told it. I believe this was the central idea of the film.The movie has this focus on a woman's hands in a circular manner throughout the film, it begins with a mothers hands and ends with focus on a mother's hands embracing her child. Reading many reviews here, I notice that the "bad reviews" seem to only critique the historical aspects of the film, and miss these wonderfully meticulous attention given to the artistic aspects of the film.It really upsets me that reviewers are so shallow in their film watching...sorry. I feel bad for them because they miss all these profound themes that Egoyan conveys: ongoing theme of "parent and child" conflicts, truth as a matter of perception, surviving travesty in one's life, finding meaning in death, vindication, and redemption....this film was sooo throughout....Most of the negative reviews are based on biases (as are the positive ones by the way) but the few critiques of the film as an art, are spot on. It's not a perfect film, but how can any film as complex as this one be "perfect?"Don't use science to bash an artistic gem. --- that's mine, but feel free to use it ;)Although, I believe Egoyan, personally thinks what was done by the Ottoman government to the Armenians in 1915 was Genocide. He showed how the Turkish government as well as modern Turks might believe otherwise, how it would be so hard for modern Turks to believe that their ancestors could do such malice.It was not just a one sided documentary-type movie. The movie shows the modern views and beliefs of both Turks and Armenians. Egoyan is at his usual best with multipler perspectives and the back and forth timeline in the movie.The one thing the film was lacking, was some sort of historical background to the Genocide. I believe this is the central reason it was not a huge hit. While the movie is flawless in its acting and direction, it is very esoteric. There should have either been some sort of epilogue or some kind of introduction to the Genocide, because otherwise the film just made it seem like Turks were just raping and murdering, but why? And how? "How could they hate us so much?" This needed to be addressed at the beginning of the film. But nonetheless, Arart is brilliant as far as movie making goes.In my humble opinion.