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Secret of the Grain, The

Universal acclaim
Based on 16 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 3 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Abdel Kechiche
Directed by: Abdel Kechiche
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 24, 2008
Running Time: 151 minutes, Color
Origin: France
Language(s): French | Arabic | Russian
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Habib Boufares, Hafsia Herzi, and Farida Benkhetache
The Secret of the Grain is a touching and resoundingly humanistic story set in the rustic port of Sete in southeastern France. Slimane has worked in the same shipyard job for over 35 years, when his growing dissatisfaction prompts him to try to open his own restaurant. His dream seems unbelievable, but his contagious conviction and persistence work their way into the hearts of his loyal but dispersed family; the four children from his first marriage, his ex-wife, current girlfriend and her bright, outspoken daughter, Rym. A grand film about ordinary people, The Secret of the Grain is a deliciously slow-burning drama about fate, food and family. (IFC Films)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
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...
The New York Times A.O. Scott
An entire family chronicle, along with four decades of French social and economic history, is recapitulated as a lavish, hectic dinner, complete with music and belly dancing. It will leave you stunned and sated, having savored an intimate and sumptuous epic of elation and defeat, jealousy and tenderness, life and death, grain and fish.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The title embraces the richness of Kechiche's beautiful film, which captures the rhythms of displacement and hardship, the bond of family meals, and even the daily routines of the magnificent women who are part of Slimane's life.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Given the movie's slow, careful development, I was hardly prepared for the cold-sweat suspense of the last half hour.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Takes one man, his children, their spouses and babies, his ex-wife, his girlfriend, her daughter, and his friends and turns it all into a masterpiece about the strange power of food - to heal, unite, exasperate.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Rather than observing this family, we feel we are part of it, and that draws us in as nothing else can.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The Secret of the Grain never slows, always engages, may continue too long, but ends too soon. It is made of life itself.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
For me, it's a sign that a filmmaker is on to something if you love hanging out with the characters as they eat and drink and talk and reveal little bits of themselves through everyday action.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
The Secret Of The Grain stretches out at the relaxed pace of a seven-course meal, but at the end of it, Kechiche has squeezed the most he can out of percolating dramas within the family and he lets the audience get to know its members without needing to throw them all a subplot.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Kechiche takes his time, allowing us to know the characters as if we live next door. But be warned: for those who come to feel like a member of the family, the unexpected end may seem strikingly unfair.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
The cast is solid, with standout performances by first-timer Habib Boufares as Slimane.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
The movie is a parable of patriarchal pride as well as a paradigm of how immigrant groups can accomplish goals without any help from their host culture.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
Escalates into visceral allegory with an abandon and cruelty that seem positively Romanian. The last 30 minutes more than redeem the preceding two hours.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
Kechiche digs a good story out of the flux, and, in the movie's final forty minutes, the suspense is terrific.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett
A penchant for suffocating close-ups and an overabundance of scenes that go on far too long mar Abdellatif Kechiche's The Secret of the Grain, an otherwise engaging drama about an immigrant Arab family in France.
Read Full Review >Variety Alissa Simon
An overlong, dramatically unbalanced picture whose emotional wallop gets somewhat diffused.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
