Special Coverage The Photo IssueThe Must List2008 Fall TV2008 Fall Movies2008 Fall Music
  • --

Credits

Rated: Unrated; Genres: Drama, Foreign Language; With: Homayoun Ershadi
B
By Troy Patterson
Troy Patterson
Troy Patterson is a critic for EW. He lives in Brooklyn.

To see, or not to see? Abbas Kiarostami's lavishly praised movie Taste of Cherry is set mostly in the Range Rover of a middle-aged Iranian named Mr. Badii, who plans to kill himself and is cruising the outskirts of Teheran to find someone who'll bury his body afterward. The richly desolate landscape is the essence of what's unquestionably poetic here — the conjuring of simple bliss and deep bleakness at once. But Badii is a man with no past and no motive, a brooding blank in a one-note story. If you're inclined to project your own existential dilemmas onto him, then Cherry will seem a meditative masterpiece. If not, it's an overmannered bore. B


Posted Apr 30, 1999
 

Add Your Comments

The rules: Keep it clean, and stay on the subject or we might delete your comment. If you see inappropriate language, e-mail us. You must have javascript enabled to submit a comment.
--
Change/Edit your grade
characters remaining