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Paradise Now
Warner Independent Pictures


8.4

based on 32 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 29 votes
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Rate this movie

FILM:

Rana's Wedding

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for mature thematic material and brief strong language

Starring Kais Nashef, Ali Suliman, Lubna Azabal, Amer Hlehel, Hiam Abbass, Ashraf Barhom, and Mohammad Bustami

Paradise Now is the story of two young Palestinian men as they embark upon what may be the last 48 hours of their lives. (Warner Independent Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Crime \| Drama \| Foreign
WRITTEN BY:	Hany Abu-Assad Bero Beyer Pierre Hodgson
DIRECTED BY:	Hany Abu-Assad
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 21, 2006 Theatrical: October 28, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	90 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	France / Germany / Netherlands / Israel
LANGUAGE(S):	Arabic (with English subtitles)

Amnesty International Film Prize, 2005 Berlin International Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Of all the shocks in the riveting and timely political thriller Paradise Now, the most unsettling may be the dignity bestowed on a pair of prospective Palestinian suicide bombers.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It's a volatile subject and Abu-Assad's thoughtful thriller stokes the debate.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Along the way, Paradise Now sustains a mood of breathless suspense. Politics aside, the movie is a superior thriller whose shrewdly inserted plot twists and emotional wrinkles are calculated to put your heart in your throat and keep it there.

TV Guide Ken Fox

A thoughtful, unsparing look at a controversial subject: suicide bombing.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The film is better than the recent "The War Within," which tried for the same things, but ultimately, and perhaps unavoidably, we are left face to face with the unknowable.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A powerful, poignant, provocative drama, it gets its strength from its dispassion, from an uncompromising determination to explain rather than justify or condemn, to put a human face on incomprehensible acts.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Abu-Assad, who made the lovely 2002 film "Rana's Wedding," is a far more gifted observer of the everyday than he is an action director, which is why, in Paradise Now, he productively sidetracks into a persuasive and often very funny portrait of the irrationalities of life under occupation.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Even though no reasonably well-informed viewer will learn much factual information from the picture, it grips; it even torments, because it lets us move and breathe and shiver and resolve with two particular young men.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

The details are intriguing, but ultimately we learn little more about what's in their heads.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Riveting.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The film offers food for thought, and reminds us that, in any war, one who understands the mindset of his opponent gains an important tactical advantage.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

A compelling, tightly made political thriller.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It's an intricate, sometimes implausible ideological thriller that might be better as a smaller-scaled, less% preachy psychological drama. Still, "Paradise" catches and keeps your attention because of its daring subject, real-life backdrops and the intensity of its actors.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Paradise Now plays like Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot," but with explosives.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Shot in the West Bank, the film radiates authenticity. Even when he plays the action like a thriller, Abu-Assad is in search of a deeper truth.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Propaganda is terror's best friend, but Paradise Now is clever enough to make that buddy work for our side for a change.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

At the stunning conclusion, you feel as if the weight of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has come down on your head.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Paradise Now isn't a comfortable viewing experience, but it isn't meant to be. Inevitably, people's reactions to this subject matter -- and this filmmaker's handling of it -- are all over the map. All I can say is that I found it a tremendously compelling existential thriller that kept me up late the night I saw it, and it has resonated in my brain ever since.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A valuable film, provided one doesn't ask too much of it.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

While nothing truly new or shocking emerges, the film does bring clarity and compassion to its depiction of an act that baffles, angers and sickens people the world over.

New York Magazine Ken Tucker

The terseness of a thriller, the clarity of a documentary, and a mixture of high drama and low humor.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

While "War Within" takes a deeper, more personal look at its protagonist, Paradise Now is a more ambitious film that better contextualizes its central characters and their politics.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Paradise Now suffers from some odd continuity glitches and takes a few too many narrative curves en route to an overly convoluted ending, but the heart of the movie is as tense as the bus ride in Hitchcock's "Sabotage."

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Paradise may not change anyone's ideology, but it should convince some that, but for some deeply divisive views of religious morality, people are pretty much the same on either side of the holy fence.

Slate David Edelstein

What makes this an important film is the way it puts you in that landscape and in those shoes, so that you almost understand how ordinary human beings can be impelled to do inhuman things.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

As a thriller, it's only fitfully suspenseful, and despite the ticking bomb premise, meanders a good deal in its plot convolutions. As a portrait of the absurdity and humiliation of life under occupation, the story is heartfelt but predictable.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

It doesn't take its ideas or its audience far enough. The result is a humanist potboiler.

Empire Staff (Not credited)

There are effective moments of dark humour.

Variety Derek Elley

Handsomely shot in widescreen, mostly on actual West Bank locations, and well-played by the cast, pic lays out the issues in an accessible but rather too over-correct way, seemingly eager to please all parties at the expense of real passion.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

Some won't appreciate the mix of tones, but none of the humor cheapens the film's final blow, nor is it designed to condone terrorism in any way.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Watchable but not very illuminating.

Film Threat Phil Hall

Filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad, who helmed the excellent "Rana's Wedding," missed the boat on this one. He may have hoped to give a human voice to the suicide bombers, but instead he gave them a misfired movie.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 29 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Anonymous gave it a7:
Compelling and interesting film that presents the filmmaker's point of view of the motivations of Palestinian Suicide Bombers. Consider though, how we would've felt about the film if Said had blown up a crowd of Israeli teenagers at a disco, which is often the case. The filmmaker deliberately chose a bus full of soldiers which in subtle way makes his attack more defensible.

Sheila B. gave it an8:
This movie provides a glimpse into life on the West Bank (I was particularly amused/fascinated by the obsession with water filters!!--but that must be an important part of daily living there). Anyway, while I empathize with the sense of hopelessness that these men must feel, their "solution" is flawed...and that --despite the filmmaker's (likely) sympathy to their cause--is actually reinforced by this film. Again--this is a look into a life that most reviewing this film do not know, including me. It was done well, and I appreciated it for that reason.

AmeL gave it a9:
Aside from good directing this film provides an interesting perspective that needs to be seen. Without going into too much detail it covers both sides of the conflict just enough for the viewers to make their own conclusions. It will make you talk about it after it's done. Highly recommended.

Sara M. gave it a10:
Startling and moving. It made me laugh. It made me consider what its like to live a life where you never feel free. It also made me find out more about the occupied territory. as a film, its well played, suspenseful, brilliantly paced, beautifully shot - the repeated image of the two guys smoking was very cool - highly recommended.

[Anonymous] gave it a10:
This movie reveals both sides of the conflict in the middle east. Those who find this movie appalling are just people who can't face both sides of the truth.

Andres gave it a10:
This definetly has Best foriegn film all over it . A beautifully directed and made film.

Farah D. gave it a9:
i thought the movie will turn out to be like any average American film concerned with a sensitive human case especially with the hero's father being an informer but then things worked out differently it says what should be said about the Palestinian cause , deeply touching , sometimes breath_taking never predictable , made with great talent .with a little pit more money it would have been a classic!

Paradise Now Warner Independent Pictures

Paradise Now
Warner Independent Pictures