Metascore

Universal acclaim - based on 21 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 29 Ratings

  • Summary: Suffering from acute kidney failure, Uncle Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave – the birthplace of his first life… In his signature cinematic style, the acclaimed Thai filmmaker delivers a strange and mystical world of visionary beauty. (Strand Releasing)


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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 21
  2. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    Mar 3, 2011
    100
    A moving, gently reassuring tale that softens the boundaries between humanity and nature, life and the afterlife.
  2. Reviewed by: Eric Kohn
    Mar 2, 2011
    100
    The magic of Uncle Boonmee is that it makes all viewers feel like the strange ones.
  3. Reviewed by: Richard Mowe
    Feb 28, 2011
    80
    A whimsical essay about the final days of a villager suffering from kidney failure it is undoubtedly one of the filmmaker's most accessible works.
  4. Reviewed by: Simon Crook
    Feb 28, 2011
    60
    A gentle trance-out and the strangest Palme d'Or winner in a while.

See all 21 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 9
  2. Negative: 4 out of 9
  1. Probably the weirdest film I've ever watched but it is because of this unusual weirdness that constructs the most unique and remarkable movie in Thai film's industry. it also shows downfall of Thai morality- how temptations were seen as ordinary compensation. How humans are now living in 2 totally different world - the world of their own selves and the world that has been built by society which highly provokes the sense of importance of self-notification, nothing is true unless you've experienced with it. Expand
  2. All the performances are very good (with my usual caveat that it
  3. I understand asian culture and how they relate to death and ghosts in a whole other way. However, I just can't get pass this simple fact. How can your dead daughter appear next to you and you not be shocked and then your dead son turn into a monkey and you act as if that isn't a big deal either. What the hell is going on in asia!!! Expand
  4. 3
    My favorite part of this movie came when I needed to go to the bathroom during a sequence when the main characters are walking through a forest. Music is playing, they are walking through the forest saying nothing, and I thought, "This movie is really slow and that diet coke has worked it's way to my bladder - time to go." So I went to the bathroom, checked my e-mail, listened to my phone messages, then walked back in to the theatre. They were still walking. I'm not kidding. Now, I'm a fan of Buddhism, I've been to Thailand...but this movie bored me to pieces. It has ten minutes of interesting spiritual/conceptual stuff, stuck in a loooong, sloooow, movie. Pretentious people will love this movie, because it will make them feel smart for liking it. Smart people will rent the dvd and watch it at ten times speed. Expand

See all 9 User Reviews

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