The Color of Paradise
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Movie Reviews of The Color of Paradise
Movie Review: Almost too painful and beautiful to bear
Summary: 5 Stars
I have trouble explaining this magnificent movie to people. How can the few moments of bliss/paradise be so moving and wrenching? How is it possible that only a few minutes into the film you care about the little boy at its center as much as you do? How is the pain and the terror of the story's unfolding as dramatic as it is when there is also a seeming inevitability about it? I guess it is called "art." And artful this film surely is. The use of slow-motion. The acting...all the acting, which is not like Hollywood acting at all and in fact never feels like any kind of acting at all is superb. A culture produced this film. An Iranian culture. I know there is great repression in that country, but there is clearly something else afoot as well. This film could be about "evil," painted with a simple brush. But it is not. The character who brings pain is nuanced. More clumsy and ineffectual and weak than evil. I know there is a great deal of simplistic religious fervor in Iran, as there is in our country, but this is a deeply religious film with no fundamentalist judgment or edge. Just some sense of grace that seems heartfelt, genuine and loving.Movie Review: Touching film recommended for the entire family
Summary: 5 Stars
Majid Majidi's The Color of Paradise is a heart-felt film that explores love and the withholding of love. The story centers around a father's (Hashem) anger with God for giving him a son (Mohammad) who is blind, and hence flawed and perceived as a burden. Hashem does everything he can to "lose" his son, from pleading with the school to take him regardless of the summer break, to pawning him off as an apprentice to a blind carpenter.
Although Mohammad is not "whole" in Hashem's eyes, as is the mirror he drops and cracks while shaving in a scene, he is still his son and capable of providing him unconditional love and is therefore of some "use," as is the mirror now cracked--it's imperfect, but still capable of serving a purpose. But as with the mirror, Hashem rejects Mohammad, which ultimatley leads to even greater loss.
The message is simple: Appreciate what God gives you, if necessary adjusting your values to accommodate that gift. For it is never His gift that is flawed, but rather our perception of such.
Movie Review: Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
Right up there with the finest of Iranian cinema, perhaps my favourite. This has everything that exalts the medium, acting divested of any sense of pretense, photography of lush mountain village surrounds to make your jaw drop, a story of compelling sadness, a haunting soundtrack( and I include the enhanced recordings of woodpeckers and canines, links that join the father and son on their twisted journey. With the relationship between the adored grandmother and small boy I was reminded of Patha Panchali(if that's the spelling), that stunning Satijat Ray film of the 50s. The direction of the superb cinematography evokes the spirit of the great Tarkovsky! I have no higher praise for this tragic tale. The river death, the struggling horse, the desperate dad, still leaves me gasping(though I've watched the film several times). It makes the downriver trek of,'Deliverance' seem like a paddle in a pond. And the Pieta scene at the film's end with the glowing, resurrecting hand is appropriately transcendent.Movie Review: Life altering.
Summary: 5 Stars
I wish everyone in America could see this movie to understand the beauty that exists outside our borders in lands we have never thought twice, or even once, about. Truth is, we have so much to learn from the sensibilities of these far older peoples and from their history. The Color of Paradise opens that door for us to walk through the rest of our lives, and for that reason it is priceless. This movie shattered me, just as I knew it would. And it did it in a way that only art can, by exploring our most anciently held beliefs about love, honor, beauty, family, and God and ultimately changing how we feel about all of it, for the better. And it did as lightly and effortlessly as a feather falling to the ground. I will never forget this film, or want to, for the better person it has made me. Little Mohammed, you will always be with me. And may we all strive during the course of our lives to reflect the love you so naturally give us!Movie Review: So good I was shocked...
Summary: 5 Stars
I went to the theatre dragged by my mother expecting a cheesy chaotic Arab Film with bright colors and a dizzying pace. Instead I saw the most spectacular, moving movie I have seen in a long time. A movie so good it left me paralyzed. I sat staring at the screen in awe until all the credits had surpassed ,and as I turned to my mother, in awe, gently snapping out of it, I saw that she too still had her eyes glued to the screen. And then as I looked around still, I saw that everybody else in the theatre was in awe as well. The best movie of the year without a doubt. Hollywood has a lot to learn. America is being left behind in the art of storytelling on screen and Iran was not a country I thought had too surpassed us. But it has, with this director and it's gentle simple riveting style. Best movie of the year. Best movie that you haven't seen.