Brilliant performances and the gripping horror of the ritualistic stoning of a woman to death make this truth-based narrative feature a modern day tragedy
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06/26/09
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The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009)
54
%
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Reviews Counted:63
Fresh:34
Rotten:29
Average Rating:5.6/10
Consensus: The Stoning of Soraya M. nearly transcends its deficiencies through the sheer strength of its subject material, but ultimately drowns out its message with an inappropriately heavy-handed approach.
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Reviews for The Stoning of Soraya M.
Although The Stoning is efficiently made, it is ultimately a cheat.
07/16/09
Top CriticIt is possible to support the journalistic ideal that no stoning should be left unturned while also championing better storytelling.
07/31/09
The Stoning Of Soraya M. crawls forward in excruciating slow motion toward the inevitable day when sinners cast the first, second, third, and fourth (etc.) stone, stacking the deck at every turn along the way.
06/25/09
A powerful,riveting and important film sure to become one of the year's most controversial.
06/27/09
This is less a movie than a blunt instrument, a bit of political parable, a bit more outrage, and nary a scrap of real drama or finesse.
06/25/09
Top CriticIt is impossible not to be moved by such a heartbreaking story.
05/29/09
The expansive dramatic approach makes sense, even at its most cringe-inducing, as Stoning is a picture created solely to disturb and provoke, not educate. With those goals in mind, the film is a smashing success.
06/25/09
This gory, ham-fisted hybrid of social-issue picture and horror film exerts a crude but undeniable power.
06/26/09
The Stoning of Soraya M. has such a powerful stoning sequence that I recommend it if only for its brutal ideological message.
06/25/09
Top CriticWhatever its dramatic flaws, and they are many, this is a movie that, in essence, is more than a movie.
07/24/09
Seeing this kind of injustice makes me feel challenged by Proverbs 31:8, 'Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those who are perishing.'
06/26/09
This film is eye-opening and heart-draining and it is excellently produced.This is a very good film, but it is hard for me to chirp "check it out" because it will stick with you, twisting in your stomach and making your life's petty annoyances feel less t
12/15/09
...there is something condescending and judgmental in the filmmaker's subtext that seems to exonerate Western culture as somehow less complicit in the atrocious murders that it commits against innocent and guilty citizens alike.
06/20/09
A devastating (albeit didactic and conventional) indictment of religious extremism as practiced in one Iranian village.
06/04/09
The film maintains an enveloping power even as its flaws come into full view.
06/26/09
Like The Magdalene Sisters, Soraya M offers its audience only those appalling truths they want to know about the evils of an alien culture they are already inclined to look down upon.
06/26/09
The more dramatic the material, the more restrained the approach ought to be.
06/26/09
The film comes perilously close to reveling in the horror while revealing it. And dramatically, this is distressingly simple-minded fare: ugliness leads to ugliness.
06/26/09
An exploitative propaganda piece that seems to exist for only one queasy reason--to allow Western audiences to witness the sight of a woman being brutally stoned to death in a sequence staged with all the sadistic delectation of a slasher movie.
06/25/09
Latest News for The Stoning of Soraya M.
November 29, 2009:
Satellite Awards Nominees Announced
Signaling that the awards season is about to begin, the International Press Academy has announced the nominees for its 14th annual Satellite Awards. More...
June 25, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Transformers 2 Is Less Than Meets The Eye
This week at the movies, we've got robots in disguise (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, starring Megan Fox and Shia LaBeouf) and a family in disrepair (My Sister's Keeper,... More...
June 23, 2009:
Shohreh Aghdashloo, Fearless Advocate
Shohreh Aghdashloo has been an outspoken critic of the Iranian government for years -- and her latest film, "The Stoning of Soraya M.," arrives at a time when violent unrest in... More...
April 19, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review
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