1. redphi

   8

   This is raw brilliant film work,created by someone who knows the inner workings of Africa and knows how to recreate scenes of merciless bloodshed,brutality and countries & families being torn apart . .I'm really laughing at the previous evaluations, typical ignorance that leads to bad reviews. I'm a Caucasian born in Africa,and know only too well this " nonsensical" incomprehensible" violence in Africa,to me it makes a lot of sense, it's the way the rest of the world likes to maintain their African slave continent,as to....
   " all the characters looking the same ;) " I rest my case. Come to Africa is all I can say,get the full flavor… Expand

   • Helpful? 0 of 1 users said Yes.
2. jeremyp

   5

   This is a pretty asinine movie.The usually reliable Huppert lets herself get put in a movie that is full of pretentious angst ridden idiocy. Huppert does well enough as an obsessive coffee plantation owner who insists on rounding up locals for labor (after everyone has fled) in spite of being smack in the midst of a murederous civil war, somewhere in a former French African colony. To her getting in the harvest trumps saving lives. Her poor evolutionary strategy is passed on to her son, in spades. I can't even get into this ridiculous character, but in the end he shaves off his hair and joins the rebels, and mercifully gets smoked to death. It's all mean to be a metaphor for self centered colonialism, but it's so full of silly white folk pursuing their own stupidity that it's a wonder that the French colonies weren't a bust after on year.… Expand

   • Helpful? 0 of 0 users said Yes.
3. Lyn

   4

   "You're insane," someone says to Isabel Huppert's character. Yes, but so is everyone else in this frustrating movie -- insanely menacing, insanely violent, or insanely clueless. I enjoyed the dusty atmospherics of the African setting, and the buildup of tension was well-done. But it's hard to take the lead character seriously when she's so blind about everything from the threatening politics of her situation to what's happening with her own son. Couldn't help but think of a missionary family of my acquaintance, whose teenage son perceptively worked out a plan to cope/escape from his boarding school, should things blow up in the part of Africa where they were stationed. By contrast with that kid, Huppert's character seems imperceptive to the point of stupidity.… Expand

   • Helpful? 0 of 0 users said Yes.
4. evancuster

   3

   I really did not enjoy watching this movie. I was very disappointed, particularly since the critics had given it great reviews. I am sure part of the problem is mine: I am really not that knowledgeable about French colonial west Aftrican history. However, even so, I had an extremely hard time figuring out what was going on because there were so many flashbacks and flashforwards. Also, there were no sympathetic characters in the movie. Everyone was crazy: the protagonist was crazy trying to get one last coffee harvest while a brutal civil was was taking place, her son was mad, her husband was crazy, and of course, both sides of the civil war were crazy. I also had difficulty trying to keep track of the characters, as many seemed to look a alike, and there was no character development. I think this is just one of those movies that the critics adore, but the general audience finds incomprehensible.… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.

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