| 100 |
San Francisco Chronicle
They are naturals at acting, not because they're good at lying but because they can't be phony.
|
| 90 |
Washington Post
The dance between authenticity and storymaking works beautifully.
|
| 90 |
New Times (L.A.)
This sensuous, exotic film is more like an issue of "National Geographic" come to life, rich with cultural detail and insight.
|
| 88 |
Baltimore Sun
Himalaya does for yak caravans what "Red River" did for cattle drives: it sees them as the stuff of epic conquest.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Tribune
Most of the performers have limited acting experience, but they are perfect for their parts, exhibiting the courage, stamina and wariness essential to live in such a harsh environment.
|
| 83 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Not quite a masterpiece perhaps, but a visually stunning mountain drama, and an absorbing look at a dying culture.
|
| 80 |
LA Weekly
Captured extraordinary performances from a cast of non-actors, as well as magnificent images of a vast landscape.
|
| 75 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
It's human drama, high and mighty.
|
| 75 |
New York Daily News
The plot is woven from minutely observed details that beautifully evoke a rarely seen world.
|
| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times
A film of unusual visual beauty and enormous intrinsic interest.
|
| 70 |
TV Guide
(Valli) brings an ethnographer's eye for detail to a plot that amounts to little more than the good old generation gap.
|
| 70 |
Los Angeles Times
Complexity and personality among key figures keeps Himalaya involving throughout its grueling journey and lifts the film above the merely ethnographic.
|
| 67 |
Austin Chronicle
It's the tortoise and the hare, Nepalese-style, and it's surprisingly dramatic.
|
| 63 |
New York Post
One of the most beautiful movies you're likely to see this year. And the cast members, all amateurs, are first-rate.
|
| 63 |
Boston Globe
Chris Fujiwara
Valli's touch as an artist is too light, and his dramatic sense too timid, to make the film much more than a collection of pretty pictures.
|
| 63 |
Miami Herald
Himalaya doesn't need a traditional story line to transport the viewer into another, fascinating world.
|
| 60 |
Mr. Showbiz
The cast is largely nonprofessional, and the story has the simplicity of myth.
|
| 60 |
The New York Times
Somehow, in spite of the stunning vistas and some witty and affecting moments, the story seems to unfold at a distance; the human drama is diminished by the setting rather than amplified by it.
|
| 60 |
Village Voice
Himalaya lacks such lightness, humor, and grace, offering instead the surface beauty of an ancient and inviolate culture.
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