Climates
Zeitgeist Films | Release Date: October 27, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
4
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
It's one of the great movies on the vicissitudes of love, commitment, and attraction. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The beauty of the Turkish film Climates, a small but indelible masterpiece, is more than skin-deep. No 2006 film meant more to me. It's as sharp and lovely as the best Chekhov short stories. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Exquisitely structured, pitiless study of a middle-aged man trapped in a stagnant emotional weather pattern. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldMarta Barber
Ceylan examines human relationships with an eye for details and a soul for the big picture. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Though Climates lacks "Distant's" haunted, poetic melancholy, it has a vivid, sensual texture that's unmistakably Ceylan's. He's one of those rare directors who doesn't need a credit for identification. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
A terrific movie in the Antonioni tradition, Climates confirms 47-year-old Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan as one of the world's most accomplished filmmakers--handling the end of a relationship and the cloud of human confusion rising from its wreckage as if the subject had never before been attempted. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
This film paints a haunting portrait of existential solitude, one in which the images speak louder and often more forcefully than do any of the words. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
It's something of a family affair -- only this time, instead of casting his relatives in the leading roles, Ceylan has cast himself and his real-life wife, Ebru, as Isa and Bahar. And if, in the hands of a lesser filmmaker, such a decision might foster a mood of lurid home-movie voyeurism, both Ceylans are such commanding and subtly expressive performers that any charges of nepotism here are as erroneous as in the storied collaborations of John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
An intimate drama that views the deterioration of a relationship from the inside out. Moving from summer through fall and concluding in winter, it's minimalist cinema that turns on subtle emotion rather than narrative and demands the audience's full attention. Read full review
80
EmpirePatrick Peters
Making masterly use of sound and image, this is a desperately sad study of the difficulty people have to communicate and commit in an increasingly insular world. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
As with "Distant," the dialogue is minimal, the takes are long, the narrative is laconic (too much so for many viewers, I imagine) and the cinematography is painterly. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Winner of a prize at the Cannes Film Festival in May, the quiet, solemn Climates is a bit like those towering ancient columns that Isa photographs to show his class. The fragmented architecture is beautiful and striking, but also extremely dated. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter Addiego
This is contemplative moviemaking, with its deliberate pace, often static scenes and emphasis on direct sound. The director keeps the dialogue pared to the bone. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
It's more admirable than enjoyable, beautifully crafted and artfully unpleasant. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Contrary to what you may read elsewhere, Climates is not a masterpiece, a word that gets pompously thrown around a lot at pictures few paying customers actually want to see. It is, rather, a meticulous study of a crumbling relationship, marked by many luminous small moments and a startling interruption of violent eroticism. Read full review
70
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Admittedly, the setting does heighten interest, but this film is much more than an ideational travelogue. Read full review
70
Washington PostDesson Thomson
We realize that this romance, like the beautiful land, is doomed almost inevitably to earthquake fissures, to irreversible change. But rather than making us despondent, Climates leaves us peacefully philosophical. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
There's much to admire here, but less to like. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Like Ceylan's earlier films, Climates is as gorgeous as it is self-consciously composed, but an hour and 40 minutes is a long time to spend with Isa, forget three seasons. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
What is interesting is Ceylan's depiction of life among the Turkish upper-middle classes, a world rarely seen in international art-house cinema outside his own films. Read full review
60
VarietyDerek Elley
Immaculately shot and composed as always, and moving at Ceylan's usual measured pace, this one is slightly enlivened by more likable perfs and a trim 98-minute running time. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDuane Byrge
Under Ceylan's dull direction and the equally leaden editing, technical contributions are lackluster and straight-forward. Similar to the script, they only serve to distend an undernourished central story. Read full review
50
PremiereAaron Hillis
Technically, it rewards with nothing less than painterly cinematography and a seamless surge of organic soundscapes, but the story is entirely predicated on a weather metaphor so obvious that even an unplugged Doppler radar could detect it. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
The husband learns nothing, and his monstrous behavior makes the movie relentlessly downbeat. No one, including the viewer, achieves catharsis. Read full review
30
Film ThreatPhil Hall
The film is professionally made but a thorough bore at every imaginable level. Read full review
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