Exquisitely photographed but emotionally overwrought and ultimately tedious.
Comment
10/18/08
Before the Rains (2008)
48
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:61
Fresh:29
Rotten:32
Average Rating:5.2/10
Consensus: While lushly photographed and politically suggestive, this soapy melodrama lacks emotional resonance.
Theatrical Release:May 9, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $954,114
Synopsis: Forbidden romance, empire, and culture clash all lie at the heart of this drama. In 1930s India, Britain's reign is beginning to lose its hold on the region. In the midst of this turmoil, a British... [More]
Starring: Linus Roache, Rahul Bose, Nandita Das, Jennifer Ehle
Director: Santosh Sivan
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Reviews for Before the Rains
With all these volatile emotions at play, Before The Rains should percolate like The Postman Always Rings Twice, but… well… it's a Merchant-Ivory production, after all.
05/15/08
Click to read the article
04/23/09
Here is a movie that the late Ismail Merchant would have been happy to have under the Merchant-Ivory banner. James Ivory is very much alive and working, and one assumes he approves as well.
10/18/08
As a melodramatic period potboiler it works well enough.
07/22/08
Producer Ismail Merchant died in 2005, but Merchant Ivory's stuffy tradition of quality lives on.
05/16/08
I can't quite recommend it.
05/16/08
Top CriticThe problem isn't just that the material is cliched and vaguely offensive....It's more that the plot is incredibly predictable, the score is manipulative and the denouement completely unsatisfying.
05/15/08
The movie is prettily done in a fairly obvious way, but there's little insight into the emerging nationalist movement, which remains at best a shimmering backdrop in soft focus.
07/25/08
While the characters sometimes feel roughly drawn, the casting is spot on.
07/22/08
Unfortunately, the parade of consequences brought on by the affair has little emotional substance.
05/23/08
While not without its merits (the performances of Jennifer Ehle and Rahul Bose are particular highlights), Before the Rains ultimately suffers from a downpour of melodrama.
01/08/09
[A] fierce, uncompromising critique of... nonchalant imperialism, and maybe even of just men on the whole... Which makes this one of the most sneakily feminist movies I've seen in a while.
05/09/08
When the rains in Before the Rains finally arrive, there's nothing to cleanse, no real dirt to wash away -- not with history already so neatly packaged and polished to a dull shine.
06/20/08
The film is fervently acted and well shot, and Das provides a powerful, emotional force, but there is something a little clanky about the whole project...
07/25/08
Lacking the emotional power necessary to fuel its contrived plot elements, the film is a minor entry in the Merchant Ivory canon.
05/01/08
One of the most ravishing and breathtakingly beautiful films to come around in a long time.
10/01/08
Set among the first wave of nationalism that led to India's independence, this highly symbolic story is tautly constructed to create high-wire tension between the oh-so-white British colonialists and the traditional Indian ways.
05/13/08
Acting honours go to Bose, his face an eloquently shifting register of shame, calculation and sympathy.
07/25/08
Don't be deceived by pretty pictures. Before the Rains has a whiff of the thriller about it.
06/20/08
Latest News for Before the Rains
May 08, 2008:
Santosh Sivan Goes Home Before the Rains 
For Before the Rains, his English-language directorial debut, cinematographer Santosh Sivan went back to his roots -- specifically Kerala, a state on the coast of southwestern... More...
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