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Reviews Counted:16
Fresh:9
Rotten:7
Average Rating:5/10
Consensus: Beautifully shot, but ultimately disappointing, lumbering sophomore effort from Russian potential great Andrey Zvyagintsev.
Runtime: 2 hrs 30 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Starring: Maria Bonnevie, Konstantin Lavronenko, Alexander Baluyev
Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev
a timeless tragedy unfolds in slow motion - but the viewer's patience is rewarded with exquisite painterly images, some unexpectedly rapid developments and a truly bleak vision of human error and its consequences.
Photographed with mesmerising clarity and power by Mikhail Krichman, and consciously evoking those found in the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, they are the most compelling feature of this grindingly slow and self-conscious fable.
A tone poem about loss, damaged masculinity, and betrayal, The Banishment is a visually arresting but dramatically flawed feature, representing an honorable (but no more) follow-up to the Russian director's 2003 stunning debut, The Return.
It feels more like a ciné dissertation designed to showcase Zvyagintsev’s appreciation of the medium than an original piece of cinema.
There are prize-winning performances, seductive landscapes and hallucinatory shots of empty urban streets and shadowy interiors.
I can't help feeling that this is a slight misstep from this director, and can't decide whether his film has at its centre a mystery or a muddle.
A movie falls into the clutches of long, solemn stares into space, meaningful drags on cigarettes, cryptic dialogue revealing little and a tiny drama that feels old, tired and empty of real purpose.
Top CriticThe film works mostly in ellipses and silences, establishing a solemnly mysterious mood.
For now, the best that can be said about Zvyagintsev is that he seems like he could potentially be a master filmmaker someday, even if he's still not made a good movie.
Though every shot is painstakingly framed and perfectly lit, the film fails at the human level. These people remain strangers throughout. There is nothing wrong with the performances but it’s difficult to create empathy without intimacy.
The Banishment is so obviously the work of an exceptional film-maker that you can't deny its power, ambition and ability to keep you watching.
We will not reveal more of the plot in the hope that one day it will be playing in a theater near you . It is truly something to see; for among all the lives to be ruined it is a visual rhapsody.
Top CriticA frustrating, oblique and portentous endurance test.
While the heavenly rays of the Almighty Himself could not have done a more exquisite job lighting the film, its beauty doesn’t compensate for the sparse, slow and unrewarding story.
Lumbering and beautiful, Zvyagintsev leaves few doubts that we’re in the hands of a fledgling master: there’s lots of striking visuals to keep you from itching for the exit as the leisurely running time unspools.
If only the ravishing opening shot of Andrey Zvyagintsev's The Banishment was followed up with both beauty and something genuinely profound, then disappointment wouldn't be so palpable.
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