01-13-2014, 03:25 PM
I needed a break from action flicks, something quieter, with good acting in an exotic setting. This Turkish film seemed the ticket.
Imdb describes it in capsule, “When a young woman named Meryem is raped, her village custom requires that she be killed in order for the dishonour to be expunged from her family.”
Cemal, the son of the village elder, upon returning from army duty, is given the task of escorting Meryem to Instanbul, and along the way killing her. There’s a couple powerful scenes, but mostly it’s an odd duck of a movie. Obviously Cemal can’t bring himself to kill Meryem, but at the same time he doesn’t treat her very well.
One would expect the worst for this couple on the run. You know, robbers, thieves, horrible physical labor just to survive. But in fact, a friend of Cemal’s sets them up to work on this private and idyllic fish farm where they occasionally cast food pellets in the water and otherwise have nothing but free time. When this eventually falls through, a rich man hires them on as crew for his big yacht. Let’s call him Skipper. Skipper takes an instant liking to them, and he plies them with room and board and constantly gives them money as they sail about.
It turns out that Skipper is a professor locked in the jaws of an existential crisis. He married a super-rich woman, but has grown disenchanted with all the rich socializing, so he walked out on her. It is never explained how he managed to stay wealthy in doing this.
Eventually the village elder’s goons track them down, and there is an incredibly implausible action scene that resolves all. At the end, in a very racy scene, Cemal sits down next to Meryem and puts his arm around her.
All in all, this reeked of deus ex machina every step of the way, and while many a critic has praised this movie, those critics have the brains of headless chickens. What the movie really needed was for Skipper to encounter and have a gay affair with Gulligan, but I guess they couldn't afford Bob Denver's current exorbitant asking price.
Imdb describes it in capsule, “When a young woman named Meryem is raped, her village custom requires that she be killed in order for the dishonour to be expunged from her family.”
Cemal, the son of the village elder, upon returning from army duty, is given the task of escorting Meryem to Instanbul, and along the way killing her. There’s a couple powerful scenes, but mostly it’s an odd duck of a movie. Obviously Cemal can’t bring himself to kill Meryem, but at the same time he doesn’t treat her very well.
One would expect the worst for this couple on the run. You know, robbers, thieves, horrible physical labor just to survive. But in fact, a friend of Cemal’s sets them up to work on this private and idyllic fish farm where they occasionally cast food pellets in the water and otherwise have nothing but free time. When this eventually falls through, a rich man hires them on as crew for his big yacht. Let’s call him Skipper. Skipper takes an instant liking to them, and he plies them with room and board and constantly gives them money as they sail about.
It turns out that Skipper is a professor locked in the jaws of an existential crisis. He married a super-rich woman, but has grown disenchanted with all the rich socializing, so he walked out on her. It is never explained how he managed to stay wealthy in doing this.
Eventually the village elder’s goons track them down, and there is an incredibly implausible action scene that resolves all. At the end, in a very racy scene, Cemal sits down next to Meryem and puts his arm around her.
All in all, this reeked of deus ex machina every step of the way, and while many a critic has praised this movie, those critics have the brains of headless chickens. What the movie really needed was for Skipper to encounter and have a gay affair with Gulligan, but I guess they couldn't afford Bob Denver's current exorbitant asking price.