Even as a flawed and self-indulgent film, it’s thought-provoking, intelligent and well worth seeing.
Ararat (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:74
Fresh:42
Rotten:32
Average Rating:6.4/10
Consensus: Though Ararat radiates intelligence, its impact is diminished by an overly intricate plot and cerebral style.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for violence, sexuality/nudity and language
Runtime: 1 hr 55 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Nov 15, 2002 Limited
Box Office: $1,378,159
Synopsis: ARARAT, Atom Egoyan's mysterious drama about the horrors of the largely unknown Armenian genocide in Turkey, unrolls through a film within the film (also titled ARARAT). Jumping back and forth in... ARARAT, Atom Egoyan's mysterious drama about the horrors of the largely unknown Armenian genocide in Turkey, unrolls through a film within the film (also titled ARARAT). Jumping back and forth in time, Egoyan weaves together the lives of several people. Ari (Arsinee Khanjian), an art historian, is an advisor on the film. Her son Raffi (David Alplay) is part of the film crew. When Raffi travels to Armenia to gather some additional footage, he is detained by a customs agent (Christopher Plummer) and remains in custody for most of the film. Meanwhile, Raffi's stepsister and girlfriend Celia (Marie-Josee Croze) is haunted by her father's suicide. These and other stories within ARARAT are ostensibly linked through the film within a film. Yet, it is each character's quest for truth which binds them thematically and drives the plot. The film is populated with thematic twins, as each character's individual struggle is mirrored in the plight of the other characters. Egoyan works from his own script relying heavily on references to Arshile Gorky's painting "The Artist and his Mother" and Clarence Ussher's historical document, AN AMERICAN PHYSICIAN IN TURKEY. [More]
Starring: David Alpay, Charles Aznavour, Eric Bogosian, Brent Carver
Starring: David Alpay, Charles Aznavour, Eric Bogosian, Brent Carver, Marie-Josee Croze, Bruce Greenwood, Arsinee Khanjian, Christopher Plummer
Director: Atom Egoyan
Director: Atom Egoyan
Screenwriter: Atom Egoyan
Producer: Robert Lantos, Atom Egoyan
Studio: Miramax Films
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Release:
Jul 22, 2003
Reviews for Ararat
Too much time is wasted showing how these people are joined, instead of what those connections mean and why these characters all belong in the same movie.
There's no doubting that this is a highly ambitious and personal project for Egoyan, but it's also one that, next to his best work, feels clumsy and convoluted.
Before long, you get Egoyan's big idea -- and it's hardly a good one. He wants to turn the movie screen into a blackboard.
In the end, Egoyan's enormous talent and Mychael Danna's intense score keep Ararat interesting and emotional.
Egoyan's work often elegantly considers various levels of reality and uses shifting points of view, but here he has constructed a film so labyrinthine that it defeats his larger purpose.
In the end, Ararat has enough artistry and intelligence -- and enough commitment from Egoyan, producer Robert Lantos and company -- to justify more than a higher-than-mixed rating.
Impassioned performances and direction make this a riveting recreation of a reprehensible period neglected by historians.
It's the type of stunt the Academy loves: a powerful political message stuffed into an otherwise mediocre film.
A difficult but worthy film that bites off more than it can chew by linking the massacre of Armenians in 1915 with some difficult relationships in the present.
You can quibble with excess characters and storylines, but the cumulative effect is strong and emotionally accurate.
Egoyan's movie is too complicated to sustain involvement, and, if you'll excuse a little critical heresy, too intellectually ambitious.
Part impassioned history lesson, part reflection on the way entertainment distorts history, part extension of [Egoyan's] previous explorations of how desire and need distort our sense of self.
Only the most patient, sensitive and sensible of viewers will cut through the film's affectations and indulgences to come to the point.
Atom Egoyan has conjured up a multilayered work that tackles any number of fascinating issues
This movie's heart is in the right place. Too bad the rest of it is all over the place.
Latest News for Ararat
September 07, 2005:
Trailer Bulletin: Where the Truth Lies
From Atom Egoyan, director of "Exotica," "The Sweet Hereafter," and "Ararat," comes Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth, and Alison Lohman in the already... More...
August 22, 2005:
Egoyan's "Truth" May Lie with an NC-17
ThinkFilm, distributor of the new Atom Egoyan film "Where the Truth Lies," plans to appeal what they believe will be an NC-17 rating from the MPAA, says The Hollywood... More...
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