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Silent Light

EMAILPRINTPalisades Pictures, Tartan

Silent Light reviews
79
7.7 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 14 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 27 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama

Written by: Carlos Reygadas

Directed by: Carlos Reygadas

Release Date:
Theatrical: January 7, 2009
DVD: September 8, 2009

Running Time: 120 minutes, Color

Origin: Mexico | France | Netherlands | Germany

Language(s): Low German | Spanish | French | English

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Cornelio Wall, Maria Pankratz, Miriam Toews, and Peter Wall

Johan and his family are Mennonites from the north of Mexico. Against the law of God and man, Johan falls in love with another woman. (Bac Films)

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...

100

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

At bottom, Silent Light is less about faith than matters of the heart, and in Reygadas' hands, the ache is bone-deep.

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100

San Francisco Chronicle Reyhan Harmanci

A film filled with beauty and pain that moves at the pace of molasses and snails. That is to say, some of it is in real time. Audiences would be advised to stay caffeinated.

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100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

What the film is really about is people who see themselves and their values as an organic whole. There are no pious displays here. No sanctimony, no preaching. Never even the word "religion." Just Johan, Esther and Marianne, all doing their best.

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100

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Even with its limitations, I find Silent Light spellbinding.

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90

Village Voice J. Hoberman

The results are extraordinary. As understated as it is, the movie is both deeply absurd and powerfully affecting.

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90

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

The film was written, directed and somehow willed into unlikely existence by the extravagantly talented Carlos Reygadas, whose immersion in this exotic world feels so deep and true that it seems like an act of faith.

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88

New York Post V.A. Musetto

As is his custom, Reygadas uses a mostly nonprofessional cast; and, as expected, he draws remarkably realistic performances.

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88

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Much of what happens in Silent Light can feel painstakingly mundane: milking cows, harvesting wheat, a long drive at night in and out of shadows. Yet throughout, there's a sense of something ominous impending, and while it remains gentle, the ending is genuinely startling.

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70

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Reygadas has hitched his austere and protracted style to an allegorical tale of subtle strength and depth.

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70

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

It's amazingly beautiful and it tests your patience; both things are par for the course with Reygadas, After that, you've either surrendered to his idiosyncratic sense of rhythm, or you're out of there.

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70

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

You know you're in for a hard-core art film when you hear more people raving about its opening shot than the movie itself.

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50

Variety Scott Foundas

Reygadas' typically arresting widescreen visuals and the presence of non-pro actors speaking in German-derived Plautdietsch makes for an initially hypnotic combination, but the spell breaks its hold well before the end of the picture's inflated running time, signaling an endurance test for all but the most ascetic arthouse auds.

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50

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The stab at sublimity-by-proxy doesn't take.

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40

New York Magazine David Edelstein

This director is too calculating to hold our trust for long, and skepticism will kill transcendence every time.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 27 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Sibyl P gave it an8:
Yes, the pace is slow, the resolution somewhat limited, but this is an unusual, beautiful film. The actors are not professional and what a relief from Hollywood emoting. Many shots are bold in their restraint, breaking convention. The language and look of the characters are a revelation. It takes us to a seemingly faraway time and place. And it was worth the price of admission for the wide shot of the cows coming in the barn. Risky, odd, inventive, this is a director's film. He worked magic with stop motion for dawn and dusk. Brilliant shots, memorable.

Warrior gave it a7:
It's amazingly beautiful and it tests your patience; both things are par for the course with Reygadas, After that, you've either surrendered to his idiosyncratic sense of rhythm, or you're out of there.

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