Well, I've seen my fair share of films, and I can honestly say that this deserves to be on the IMDB top 25, or at least the top 250. ABSOLUTELY every aspect of this film was incredible. The acting was fantastic, the music was unique and incredible, the cinematography was among the best I've ever seen, and the story was unique, effective and very likeable. How is this not on the top 250? I can't see how anyone could not love this film.
shareAs a stand-alone film, it was pretty good. I gave it an 8 but wish I could give it an 8.5. But I won't give it a 9. The script is a little confusing. It's supposed to be thought-provoking, and it definitely succeeds, but I feel like it has a few clarity issues that keep it from a 9 or above. The acting was definitely superb, direction beautiful, etc. The script was a little lacking, though, but still decent.
Beyond that...
The issues I have with the movie are all related to the book. Did you know it's based on a book? In any case, the movie only tells the main story, for the most part, the modern one. In the book, there are several fantasy and flashback chapters that are far more revealing than anything in this movie. As such, the movie builds up to something great and doesn't QUITE deliver.
Read the book if you want to understand more about the backstory. There's hardly any of it in the movie, but the book is FULL of it.
If the movie had been about 30 or 45 minutes longer, they might have managed to get more of this crucial information in and made a better movie. I know the writer, director, and studio probably wanted to keep it short, though.
Which is a shame. I'd certainly sit through a 2.5-hour movie of this caliber. :-)
Book gets a 9.5, movie an 8/8.5.
I agree with RogerMarket, this movie does not deserve top 250 but it is a really great movie. Still there are some cracks in the script. Since I did not read the book I can not say but at the end of the movie, I said: "Well nice directing, nice soundtrack, nice performance by actors and nice landscape. But why did that Grandfather killed himself? How that Grandfather became after he hit? Maybe I should read the book or watch it again. But right now I do not understand some of the most important parts of the story at the end. So it does not deserve more than 8.
shareVery late reply for people who can ask similar question. I read the book and watched this movie. The book is much stronger for reason for suicide. In book, Grandparent had a best friend, Jew, who was mostly like part of his family. This friend was a lonely man, who even once asked permission to kiss Grandpa's wife as he could die without kissing a woman (Grandpa didn't allow). When Nazi's came and asked who was Jewish, and started killing Jews, some Jewish people pointed out on neighbors or themselves, and when only this friend left uncovered, Grandpa pointed on him to save his wife and son. He wasn't a Jew (I don't understand why in movie Grandpa is a Jew, he was Ukrainian in a book), he betrayed his best friend and this was the reason for suicide.
share7.7/10 is a great score regardless of what it is.
shareSorry to disappoint you but I find this film greatly overrated. There are many factual errors in this film, for example most of the locations were not taken place in the North West region, rather around Odessa and Kiev. The train station was not in Lviv although it said "Lviv" on it. The main character took the train both in the beginning and end of the movie. Why? The most natural would be to take the flight because there are airports in Lviv and Odessa. The house with sunflowers were not near the Carpathians but near Odessa (also note that the old woman said "I have never been to Odessa"!). The story itself is strained and over-pretentious with sometimes bad acting.
It doesn't matter where it was filmed it only matters what the landscape looks like, it could have been filmed in east Texas(if the scenery suited) for all i care. Unless you are a local Ukrainian and are familiar with the area will its location be a problem, i found that when watching "Cracks"(2009) because some of it was filmed in familiar places to me, it almost ruined the film for me (almost).
And as for the acting i found it superb, but thats a matter of opinion.
This is a movie, not a documentary.
shareOne of my favorite movies of all time..
10/10 for sure.
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Call me coldblooded, but I didn't like the movie. I gave it 5, and I think it's VERY overrated, and there are some scenes that gets on my nerve with the bad acting.
shareI thought it was a fantastic movie worthy of at least an 8.5. Yes, Schreiber didn't give the background story as much importance as the book did, but that's why I liked the movie all the more- because of the subtlety.
It probably went over most people's heads. Quite a pity.