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

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Marketing this as gay-themed is sort of misleading. There is an important gay relationship in it, but it's handled in a subtle manner. The Turkish family is either tolerant or in denial, (probably both). Reminds me a little of the Italian film 'I Am Love', which also takes a dramatic turn near the end. Prior to that, though, the story moves rather slowly. The quality of the lighting and the DVD itself is not great. I hope someday it will be 're-digitized'. Anyway, the film is remarkable for portraying a quietly ambivalent acceptance of homosexuality in a culture that is non-western and cosmopolitan: Istanbul. And interestingly, it suggests that the quietly ambivalent acceptance has been going on for a very long time. (10/2012)

I like a movie that has a distinct climax, yet is easy to overlook or perhaps miss altogether. The climax of Hamam is when Francesco hands his wife the letters from his aunt and asks that she send them back when she's finished reading them. It is a seemingly small, inconsequential gesture -- but an act of conviction that describes a person's inner workings far more than could ever be achieved with an abundance of words. It is truly a beautiful moment -- one of many -- and a reason this is a film worth viewing.

So let's restrict ourselves to the most beautiful shot. The closing scene, I think. Here we find yet another of the main characters we have started to know throughout the story, being sucked into the gentle, demanding, chaotic, smoky, colourful and slow whirlpool that is this movie's Istanbul. An antique cigarette holder, a loved-one's sweater, and a calm, steady gaze over the Bosphorus. Representative, in its way, for the entire film. Understatement at its finest.

Visually interesting and an engaging-enough plot but the characters failed to arouse any emotion. Towards the end of the movie we learn that someone wanted to name their baby after Francesco and I asked myself why. He does nothing in the movie except brood and read his aunt's letters and for some reason everyone who meets him in Turkey seems to think he's Mr Charisma. All I can say is they obviously don't get out much.