Unfortunately, Provoked possesses the tinny production values and schmaltzy music of a prime-time special, despite its ensemble of terrific actors.
Comment
05/17/07
Provoked (2007)
29
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:34
Fresh:10
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
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 CriticBy offsetting Women in Cages-style throw-downs with Malcolm X-like uplift, it is simultaneously strange and familiar, inspiring and annoying.
05/30/07
feels largely meaningless and inconsequential
05/17/07
Provoked is a feminist homily of the shrillest order.
05/08/07
Top CriticSoapy sermon about the landmark case of a battered wife.
05/11/07
In keeping its inflammatory subject matter at arm’s length, Provoked does exactly the same to its audience.
05/14/07
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
Holy Burning Bed! If Britain had its own equivalent of the Lifetime channel, "Provoked" would be tailor made for it.
05/12/07
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 CriticWhat 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.
06/08/07
In the end, Provoked is not provocative enough.
05/18/07
Provoked is just about worth seeing for its important subject matter and for Aishwarya Rai's performance but it's a real struggle at times, due to the astonishingly inept direction.
04/05/07
Jag Mundhra’s melodrama is pitched at an almost deafening level, drowning out any tiny notes of nuance in a tale of tears of triumph.
05/10/07
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 CriticA historic tale of triumph that director Jag Mundhra douses in Old Hollywood-meets-Bollywood aesthetics.
05/07/07
The true story deserved something much more gritty and intense than Provoked was able to deliver.
05/10/07
The real-life heroes in this story deserve better than a formulaic, poorly shot melodrama.
05/21/07
Top CriticThere are some tremendous lessons of courage and justice to be taken from Provoked, however the drama is often so forced that there are times when the film is hard to watch.
05/11/07
Unfortunately, syrupy music, reductive characterizations and bland cinematography turn her case into an earnest feminist fable that plays like an afterschool special for grown-ups. (Call it the anti-Longford.)
05/10/07
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