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Vertical Ray of the Sun, The
Sony Pictures Classics


9.3

based on 21 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 11 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for thematic elements and some sex-related material

Starring Tran Nu Yên-Khê, Nhu Quynh Nguyen, Le Khanh, Quang Hai Ngo, and Chu Hung

On the anniversary of their mother's death, three sisters in contemporary Hanoi meet to prepare a memorial banquet. After the banquet, the calm exteriors of the sisters' lives begin to give way to more turbulent truths. (Sony Pictures Classics)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Anh Hung Tran
DIRECTED BY:	Anh Hung Tran
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 18, 2001 Video: December 18, 2001 Theatrical: July 6, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	112 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	France / Germany / Vietnam
LANGUAGE(S):	Vietnamese (with English subtitles)

Original title "À la verticale de l'été"

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...

Newsweek David Ansen

Vertical Ray slows our rhythms and heightens our senses: it's a shimmering, tactile experience.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A wholly enveloping experience. Gentle, ravishingly beautiful and awash in everyday sensuality, it so intoxicates you with the elegance and refinement of its filmmaking that even noticing, let alone caring, whether it has a plot starts to seem beside the point.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It's a simple story with complex reverberations and undercurrents, as secrets keep being revealed.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Underneath the ravishing imagery however, hearts are in flux.

New Times (L.A.) Bill Gallo

It's a bewildering but deeply satisfying paradox, this constant, nearly silent collision in Tran's films of the visible world and the turbulent, unseen world.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

There are scenes that simply ask the audience to drink in the details, to enjoy the repast, just as much as follow the plot.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

The magnificence of the film's pieces does not quite add up to a satisfying whole.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Beautiful, languorous, passive -- it plays like background music for itself.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Much of the film is oddly ambiguous, as if Tran used it to explore conflicts of tradition and modernity and never came up with any answers.

Portland Oregonian Staff (Not credited)

Tran's cinematography is delicate yet probing. Faces, especially eyes, tell much of the story.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The cinematography is gorgeous from first frame to last, but the story occasionally rings false.

USA Today Mike Clark

Few filmmakers of the past 20 years have mesmerized as much in their use of crisp, color-drenched photography.

San Francisco Chronicle Wesley Morris

Plays like a holy, erotic mood piece, steeped in so much subdued jungle fever that it practically runs on photosynthesis.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Made of a serene dynamite that's all but unknown to American film audiences.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

An oblique, vaguely sorrowful study in domestic emotion, structured around the small eruptions of feeling -- tenderness, anger, and joy -- that punctuate the slow serenity of daily life.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

For all its virtues, this is not a film to see on less than a good night's sleep.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Here's the downside, and it's not just me: You need a scorecard to keep track of the sisters, their brother, two husbands, a boyfriend, two (or three?) extramarital lovers.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Filled with bird sounds, Vertical Ray is almost surreal in its paradise imagery -- the movie is a sultry, harmoniously expressionistic riot of pale greens and deep yellows.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

If you're looking for refuge from summer movie bombast, it's frequently intoxicating.

TV Guide Ken Fox

This sleepyheaded atmosphere, augmented by the languid songs of Lou Reed and Arab Strap, hangs so heavily over the film that the viewer is lulled into a state dangerously close to unconsciousness.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Story is fairly conventional and not especially well told, though as usual Tran's images are so sensual and beautiful that I was rarely bored or frustrated.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.3 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Milda M gave it a10:
Marvelous!!!!

Chad S. gave it a 6:
"The Vertical Ray of the Sun" is most successful when the camera follows Lien(Tran Nu Yen-Khe) and her brother Hai(Ngo Quang Hai). Their chummy relationship pushes the beautiful cinematography to a subordinate role, since an engaging story isn't always a consistent when the film explores the lives of Lien's two older sisters. Since the film is democratic in distributing screen time, this possible incestuous relationship isn't resolved in a satisfying manner. To save time, Lien just dates other men, because writer/director Anh Hung Tran hides the open ending to this strange relationship. Tran goes for a big comic moment to qualify Lien's indoctrination into a well-adjusted life, but it feels forced. A girl that's inexperienced with the opposite sex is acceptable, however, Lien's utter naivety about menstural matters is hard to swallow, since she has two close sisters and a deceased mother. "The Vertical Ray of the Sun" has a more ambitious story than "The Scent of the Green Papaya", which could be a problem if your bread and butter is atmosphere and stunning photography.

Rien B. gave it a 10:
These moments are those I wake up from the a beautiful dream strung into a film. I cannot recommend them highly enough.

Judy R. gave it a 10:
A beautifully shot, sensually flowing film.

Dana B. gave it an 8:
Languid, beautiful and understated. Also, rent "The Scent of Green Papaya" if you haven't seen that yet (same director).

Jennifer S. gave it a 10:
Sublimated sensuality at it's best!

Vertical Ray of the Sun, The Sony Pictures Classics

Vertical Ray of the Sun, The
Sony Pictures Classics