Amour

Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: December 19, 2012

8.1	USER SCORE Universal acclaim based on 352 Ratings

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heyitsmegrif4Jan 13, 2013

Amour features fine actors doing their best, but they also have to give performances that come from boring and never compelling characters. The story is simple and features plot points that aren't needed or particularly make sense. AnAmour features fine actors doing their best, but they also have to give performances that come from boring and never compelling characters. The story is simple and features plot points that aren't needed or particularly make sense. An original score would have been nice to hear because I was bored most of the time with it featuring long quiet scenes with no dialogue. Michael Haneke's Amour is a boring and undeniably pretty drama that manages to be forgettable. I give this movie 58%.… Expand

2 of 4 users found this helpful22

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TVJerryFeb 18, 2013

Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva play a Parisian couple in their 80s. When she has an attack, he nurses her thru the final agonizing days. Michael Haneke is a skilled director, who's at his most stark and dispassionate, whichJean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva play a Parisian couple in their 80s. When she has an attack, he nurses her thru the final agonizing days. Michael Haneke is a skilled director, who's at his most stark and dispassionate, which translates into interminable pacing, uncompromising camera and oblique narrative. If you like watching the deterioration of a woman in a detached, heavy and bleak atmosphere, you may appreciate this well-acted but agonizing (in so many ways) examination. Call me shallow, but I wasn't moved.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

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jhepMar 3, 2013

It’s alarming to see how savvy some filmmakers are becoming at knowing just what material and what “spin” will gain them big critical jackpots and festival jury prizes. "Amour" is a case in point and suggests that the line betweenIt’s alarming to see how savvy some filmmakers are becoming at knowing just what material and what “spin” will gain them big critical jackpots and festival jury prizes. "Amour" is a case in point and suggests that the line between demographic-massaging advertising agencies and shrewd, cachet-hunting filmmakers is diminishing at an alarming rate. The film is basically a genteel “infomercial” that argues the case for euthanasia; it's an highly aggressive, in-your-face exercise and a very ONE-NOTE, highly aggressive, in-your-face exercise..........What it also has “going for it” in some circles at any rate- is the Jerry Springer-like touch of casting two well known stars of yesteryear, now in their 80s, in the lead roles. This brings an eerie Reality TV touch to the proceedings and something of a “frisson nouveau” to your card-carrying film buff audience (the demographic-massaging angle) Think how much, by way of comparison, the casting two relative unknowns would have affected the film’s reception...... In Teen Speak it would have been …..“B-O-R-R-R-I-N-G !!!”

Jean-Louis Trintignant in particular struggles to breath life into the sparse characterization that writer/director Haneke has provided for him. However his efforts are in vain, for the forces of “infomercial-hood” are aligned against him here and (even more artistically crippling) Haneke’s somewhat gleeful penchant for the morbid. This latter holds sway as his camera zooms in to capture every detail of the physical and mental disintegration of Trintignant‘s wife (the now 85-year-old star of "Hiroshima Mon Amour" Emmanuelle Riva.) Indeed, Riva’s character soon becomes a sort of laboratory specimen that Haneke is studying intently under the microscope “I wonder what will “go” next he seems to be asking himself, pencil in hand with the result that The Wife (which is the sort of generic entity that Riva is finally reduced to) ends up becoming disconcertingly like that giant bug that Gregor Samsa turns into in Kafka’s "The Metamorphosis" By contrast, one wonders what Jean Renoir or Douglas Sirk would have done with this material. The fact that Riva’s character is not particularly sympathetic to begin with only adds to the uneasiness- indeed, queasiness- we end up experiencing as we’re invited to observe the spectacle of her relentless undoing....... Sad to say, by that point in the film either this latter studying-the-bug-under-the-microscope sensation or else flat out boredom seem to be our only options. "Amour" is an award-winning and highly pretentious film and the two go together much too often for comfort these days.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

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Apemonkey666Jan 15, 2013

This is a typical movie that film critics love but is hard to like. The wife of an elderly couple gets a stroke, and from there it goes downhill. The film is incredibly slow but also realistic and as the woman's health and mental stateThis is a typical movie that film critics love but is hard to like. The wife of an elderly couple gets a stroke, and from there it goes downhill. The film is incredibly slow but also realistic and as the woman's health and mental state deteriorate it becomes more difficult for the man to cope with the situation and also for you as a viewer more irritating to watch. Watching this film is like spending time in a retirement home, it's depressing, you don't wanna stay longer then necessary and you're glad when it's over.… Expand

1 of 6 users found this helpful15

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mepittsFeb 2, 2013

Just another reminder to myself to look beyond rave reviews.

PROS: Strong actors. A cultured, music-filled context for the story. CONS: The characters are simply not interesting or compelling people. We were led to believe thatJust another reminder to myself to look beyond rave reviews.

PROS: Strong actors. A cultured, music-filled context for the story.

CONS: The characters are simply not interesting or compelling people. We were led to believe that something "deep" was going on because of so much silence and empty space in the film. The male lead appropriately and scornfully dismissed a careless nurse, but did not treat his wife that well himself. While it's true that sometimes silence can be profound, it's also true that silence can be empty. Some films use sadness and space to communicate important and useful messages. This film was just a container for sadness and space. RECOMMENDATION: Don't go.… Expand

0 of 3 users found this helpful03

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artifaxxFeb 4, 2013

This movie is quite drawn-out and boring. The story being told provides you no reason to care about either of the main characters or to relate in any way to them. Not worth the two hours.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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Luiz_FelipeAug 28, 2013

What a sad movie! Gets you wondering how will you get old. This kind of non-hollywoodian film can be oustanding some times, but here that's not the case, in my humble opinion. Go for The Intouchables.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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EdeltraudOct 25, 2013

OK, good to have a topic like getting old and doing it up real, but the director did many really annoying things that served no purpose. Like five minutes of looking out on a theater audience, an old dude chasing a pigeon for half an hour,OK, good to have a topic like getting old and doing it up real, but the director did many really annoying things that served no purpose. Like five minutes of looking out on a theater audience, an old dude chasing a pigeon for half an hour, panning paintings for half a dog's life.
This film needed to have some flamboyant or different characters. everyone was the same morose one-note. The neighbors, kids, students, nurses. Geesh.
I'm very sympathetic to the story, have lived through many passings of aged parents and even a couple of contemporaries..but we had a lot more laughter and upbeat moments..
I kind of agree with the guy who said it was like sitting in a nursing home all night. I'm sure glad I didn't see this at the theater. Good performance by the old lady, but way too much artsie by the director.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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