What should have turned out as a terrific movie about the crime of spousal abuse has instead received the equivalent of a ham-handed molestation by director Mundhra.
Comment
06/08/07
Provoked (2007)
27 %
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 33
Fresh: 9
Rotten:24
Average Rating: 4.5/10
Consensus: Provoked's story is worth telling, but the hammy dialogue and heavy-handed direction doesn't give it the refined treatment it deserves.
Theatrical Release:May 11, 2007 Limited
Synopsis: "Provoked" is the true story of a battered wife who fought back, first against her husband and then against the system. Full of optimism and affection, newlywed Kiranjit Ahluwalia (Aishwarya... [More]
Starring: Aishwarya Rai, Naveen Andrews, Miranda Richardson, Rebecca Pidgeon
Director: Jag Mundhra
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Reviews for Provoked
By offsetting Women in Cages-style throw-downs with Malcolm X-like uplift, it is simultaneously strange and familiar, inspiring and annoying.
05/30/07
The real-life heroes in this story deserve better than a formulaic, poorly shot melodrama.
05/21/07
Top CriticThe script is melodramatic, and Rai's lead performance is thin stuff.
05/18/07
Top Critic[Director] Mundhra can't control the expansiveness of the melodrama or focus on the terseness of realism. Every character in Provoked, from victims to tyrants, Indian to English, loud to quiet, ends up as a grossly exaggerated comic creation.
05/18/07
Top CriticIn the end, Provoked is not provocative enough.
05/18/07
Provoked rarely ducks below its glossy surface.
05/18/07
Top Criticfeels largely meaningless and inconsequential
05/17/07
The true-crime drama Provoked has everything to offer except a cinematic point of view and a knack for depicting human beings under duress. Those are major drawbacks.
05/17/07
Top CriticUnfortunately, Provoked possesses the tinny production values and schmaltzy music of a prime-time special, despite its ensemble of terrific actors.
05/17/07
Top CriticAccount of a legal campaign launched by women to expose the brutality of domestic violence and male chauvinism.
05/17/07
Director Jag Mundhra doesn't do enough to clarify that killing, however horrible the man, really isn't okay, even for beautiful women.
05/16/07
Top CriticIn keeping its inflammatory subject matter at arm’s length, Provoked does exactly the same to its audience.
05/14/07
Top CriticHoly Burning Bed! If Britain had its own equivalent of the Lifetime channel, "Provoked" would be tailor made for it.
05/12/07
PROVOKED: A TRUE STORY sets out to tell an important story in the history of the British judicial system. Unfortunately, the project was undertaken by filmmakers who seemingly didn't know how to handle the implications of the story they wanted to tell.
05/11/07
Soapy sermon about the landmark case of a battered wife.
05/11/07
Director Jag Mundhra expends so much energy and screen time to sway us to take Kiranjit's side -- really, we're on her side, we're on her side -- that he doesn't have much left over for anything else.
05/11/07
Top CriticA clueless [director] Mundhra tackles the subject with a heavy hand and a contrived script. The result is a daytime soap mixed with a second-rate women-behind-bars flick.
05/11/07
Top CriticFor all the gushy feelings, the plight of women like Kiranjit, bound not only by domineering, often physically abusive husbands but by racism and oppressive cultural traditions as well, is poignantly portrayed.
05/11/07
Rai's acting is frustratingly passive in Provoked, and the script is laced with prison and courtroom clichés. But the movie gets most of the facts straight and the flashbacks to the wife's abuse are harrowing.
05/11/07
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