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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Late Marriage
Magnolia Pictures


7.2

based on 26 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 8 votes
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Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Lior Ashkenazi, Ronit Elkabetz, Moni Moshonov, Lili Koshashvili, Aya Steinovits Laor, Rozina Cambus, Simon Chen, and Sapir Kugman

Set within the Georgian émigré community of Tel Aviv, Late Marriage is a sexy and biting comedy of manners that investigates what happens when human beings get stuck between the rock of true love and the hard place of family tradition. (Magnolia Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Dover Koshashvili
DIRECTED BY:	Dover Koshashvili
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 18, 2003 Video: February 18, 2003 Theatrical: May 17, 2002
RUNNING TIME:	100 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Israel / France
LANGUAGE(S):	Georgian / Hebrew (with English subtitles)

Original title "Hatuna Meuheret"

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

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The acting is superb, the filmmaking is imaginative, and the story never goes quite where you expect.

100

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

So intimate and sensual and funny and psychologically self-revealing that it makes most of what passes for sex in the movies look like cheap hysterics.

100

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Late Marriage will assuredly rank as one of the cleverest, most deceptively amusing comedies of the year.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Watch for the director's own mother, Lili Kosashvili, a standout as Zaza's fierce, stately mama.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

The most fruitful twist in Late Marriage is that at its core lies not a snippy domestic farce but a prolonged, dirty, and wholly credible sex scene, which starts and stops and starts again, and in which argument and arousal are entwined like limbs. [27 May 2002, p.124]

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A canny (and profoundly sexy) movie.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Powerful and very bitter comedy.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

The overall execution add up to a film of beautiful, ultimately heartbreaking honesty.

Chicago Tribune John Petrakis

One of those welcome visitors, a movie that turns out to be much more than we expected.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Until the final shot, the movie keeps you wondering how it will turn out.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

Doesn't give off the same happy feel of the Indian arranged-marriage movie "Monsoon Wedding." Rather, it poses hard questions and leaves them unanswered.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Kosashvili's camera is restrained, the better to render Late Marriage superbly brash, raunchy, and confrontational.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

A daring and immediate debut feature for Koshashvili, Late Marriage could lead two likeminded people to opposite conclusions, and that may be its greatest strength.

Chicago Reader Ted Shen

Despite its farcical moments, Late Marriage leaves an aftertaste as sobering as other recent films that critique cultural conservatives in the Middle East.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Late Marriage is a closely observed, somewhat funny, ultimately very sad movie.

Variety Lisa Nesselson

As wrenching as it is funny.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

A stunning directing debut -- is anything but sentimental about old- country customs.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The most important sequence in Late Marriage is a refreshingly frank sex scene involving Zaza and Judith. -- Watching this scene, we realize that most sex scenes in the movies play like auditions.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

Kosashvili's clear-eyed approach to the cultural tradition of arranged marriage balances respect and scorn, and he reconciles the comedy and tragedy inherent in Zaza's tug-of-love with finesse.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Whether this smart, sexy and unsparing film is a hilarious comedy or a poignant drama is a matter of personal opinion — and experience. But if you've ever felt both baffled and blessed by your own family, this "Marriage" is one event you won't want to miss.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

If you used this guy's umbilical cord for fishing line, you could land a world-record marlin.

New Times (L.A.) Robert Wilonsky

A remarkable movie with an unsatisfying ending, which is just the point.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Late Marriage, though hardly dispassionate, assiduously avoids passing judgment on any of its characters, all of whom are desperately trying to bend the world into conformity with their own narratives and superstitions.

TV Guide Ken Fox

This superbly played film, directed with remarkable skill for a first-time feature filmmaker, is truly an adult drama.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Up and down, Late Marriage is definitely rocky, but there's never a point where we lose interest and want out -- as relationships go, that's not bad.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Late Marriage's stiffness is unlikely to demonstrate the emotional clout to sweep U.S. viewers off their feet.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

prescott gave it a 3:
Witless, charmless, devoid of heart. Avoid it if you expect movies to entertain you.

Chad S. gave it a 7:
The cons of tradition for tradition's sake lie at the heart of "Late Marriage", a movie that goes one step further than the similar themed "East is East". Instead of a tyrannical father, we get a relentless mother with backup, two carloads of in-laws who come across like the mafia, when they accost her son's mistress in her apartment. Are there any pros to arranged marriages? Writer/director Dover Koshashvili doesn't seem to make any. "Late Marriage" is about the need for change. But the social mores of a culture can be relentless. At the end, you wonder how the groom will act when his children come of age. Did he yield, or is he being satirical? You judge.

Ken G. gave it a 9:
Astute and interesting study of people where the culture and family in which they are born takes a demanding and controlling role shaping the choice of when and who they marry.

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Late Marriage Magnolia Pictures

Late Marriage
Magnolia Pictures