Chicken with Plums
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: August 17, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
5
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAug 22, 2012
A grand, romantic life story about love, loss, regret and the sadness that can be evoked by a violin - not only through music, but through the instrument itself. It is all melancholy and loss, and delightfully comedic, with enough but not too much magic realism. The story as it stands could be the scenario for an opera. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsOct 19, 2012
Although the story is mournful, the movie is buoyed by a heaven-scented surrealism. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayAug 22, 2012
Just as the plot combines fantastical and biographical elements-some of it is reportedly based on Satrapi's own family legends-so the filmmaking veers from straightforward to more outsized. The tonal shifts don't always work. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumAug 22, 2012
Adapting Satrapi's graphic novel about a violinist (Mathieu Amalric) in late-1950s Tehran who's got a broken fiddle and a broken heart and takes to his bed, willing himself to die, the filmmakers rely on expressive eyes to carry a narrative style suitable for a silent movie. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnAug 16, 2012
While visually scrumptious, the movie struggles to reach a greater profundity that it never quite obtains, but its childlike emulation of a grand tragedy is indelibly precious. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottAug 16, 2012
The result is captivating, but not exactly moving: Nasser-Ali's grand passion is posited rather than communicated, in spite of Mr. Amalric's exquisitely soulful performance. Read full review
80
TimeMary PolsAug 16, 2012
You have no idea what's coming next, except that it will be wildly creative and beautiful. These two know how to mix up a very unusual and successful cinematic recipe. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungAug 4, 2012
Both winsome and sophisticated, Chicken with Plums unfolds like a rich Persian carpet woven of memories and nostalgia in a colorful fantasy Iran of 1958, twenty years before the Islamic Revolution turned the country to somber grays. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianM. E. RussellOct 4, 2012
It's fascinating as an offbeat storytelling exercise. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanOct 4, 2012
Satrapi and Parronnaud give us clues but no solution. The fun, for those of us who like fairy tales, is in guessing. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeMark FeeneySep 20, 2012
Chicken With Plums has Iran in common with "Persepolis," but little else. Largely, though not entirely, live action, it's a fairly traditional story about thwarted love - a kind of fairy tale for grown-ups. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 13, 2012
A whimsical, sad, diverting and altogether delightful exploration of how cinema can benefit, not only from glancing back at its own past, but by staying open to parallel forms of presentation and play. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineElise NakhnikianAug 4, 2012
A fable about the damage done when a young couple is forced to part, Chicken with Plums is deeply melancholic, yet so full of humor and humanity that it pulses with life even while tracing the trajectory of a slow suicide. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenAug 30, 2012
It's not entirely satisfying, but there's plenty to savor in Chicken With Plums. Read full review
70
VarietyJay WeissbergAug 4, 2012
The same winning balance of seriousness and humor that made "Persepolis" such a hit works equally well in Chicken With Plums. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenSep 20, 2012
Fluctuating between the extraordinary and the dull, with sections of narrative explication and tangents, Chicken With Plums can be as frustrating as it is ambitious. It's more like Chicken With Plums – and the Kitchen Sink. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeySep 20, 2012
Amalric's performance is comically moving in the manner of silent actors, and the film is beautifully wrought with moments of enchantment. Alas, Chicken is a movie that begins with a crescendo and doesn't sustain its lyricism. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigSep 6, 2012
Chicken With Plums is not a thoroughly delectable concoction, but its exotic flavor is worth sampling. Read full review
60
Village VoiceChris PackhamAug 14, 2012
The evocation of passionate love is palpable, what with Amalric's sad longing and Farahani's Nobel Prize–winning face and everything, and the honest undercurrent of melancholy keeps the whole thing from becoming unmoored. Read full review
60
Time OutEric HynesAug 14, 2012
There's some magic in the grab-bag method, but with all the furious wand-waving, the story itself never gets to cast much of a spell. Read full review
60
The GuardianXan BrooksAug 4, 2012
Sit in the front – and don't peer too hard – and Chicken With Plums casts an undeniable spell. It is bold, exotic and distinctive, particularly during the animated angel of death sequence. Read full review
50
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeAug 17, 2012
Fortunately, Chicken With Plums does have its pleasures, including Isabella Rossellini as the silkily jaded mother. Read full review
42
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonAug 17, 2012
There are pleasures to be found in "Chicken with Plums" to be certain, but we'd hope for something a little more satisfying next time out from the directing team. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSep 6, 2012
An agony of bad plotting and whimsical, lifeless scenes. Read full review
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