Darshan: The Embrace
IFC First Take | Release Date: July 26, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Sebastien Pentecouteau's startlingly beautiful cinematography lends the film a dreamlike quality and perfectly suits Kounen's mystical subject matter. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerBill White
Movies about gurus generally fail to capture the charisma of their subjects. French director Jan Kounen's documentary on Amma, India's hugging saint, who allegedly has given restorative embraces to more than 45 million supplicants, is no exception. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Jan Kounen, the maker of Darshan, is a French director with flashy credentials, including music videos, commercials, horror shorts, violent gangster movies ("Dobermann") and offbeat westerns ("Blueberry"). Read full review
70
VarietyLisa Nesselson
Docu's pace will be a little too meditative for many, but the rigorous, sinewy lensing will have Hypnotic power on those so inclined. Read full review
60
The New York TimesJeannette Catsoulis
Filling our heads with pretty pictures and not much else, Darshan: The Embrace is likely to leave audiences enchanted but unenlightened. Read full review
50
New York PostV.A. Musetto
When it comes to magnetism, the Rolling Stones have nothing on Amma, the Indian mahatma ("spiritual guide") chronicled in Jan Kounen's handsomely photographed but one-sided documentary. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleJohn McMurtrie
A loving if fawning documentary. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
According to several sojourners who speak in the film, Amma is the embodiment of love. And according to her website, it's her religion, too. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyTim Grierson
Unless you're already a true believer, Amma comes across in Darshan as a perfect angel, a frustrating enigma and a rather dull cinematic subject. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJohn Anderson
While Amma's teachings of love, inner peace and Karma, or action, resonate in the film -- obviously, Amma is a woman called to God -- her background remains pretty much a mystery. Less National Geographic and more personal history would have added a dimension to "Darshan." Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
Scenes of pageantry and mass prayer show that thousands respond to her charisma, but Kounen gives little insight why; aside from Amma's belief that creator and creation are one, her religious tenets remain a mystery. Read full review
40
Village VoiceBen Kenigsberg
Werner Herzog's "Wheel of Time" was, in a sense, the Buddhist equivalent of this film, as well as a more illuminating look at the power and transience of ritual. Read full review
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