Fire
Zeitgeist Films | Release Date: August 22, 1997 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Mehta has created a pair of memorable characters who are easy to empathize with, and who gratifyingly are never transformed from flesh-and-blood individuals into mere symbols. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
Writer-director Deepa Mehta fuses the soap-opera elements of her plot -- which reveals one sexual secret after another of the variously betrayed, selfish, and self-actualizing members of the two couples' New Delhi household--into profound drama. Read full review
80
Washington PostStaff (Not credited)
In filmmaker Mehta's deft hands, the outcome is handled with power and sensitivity. [22 Aug1 997, pg.N40]
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The two women are very beautiful, gentle and sad together, and the movie is all but stolen by Chowdhry, as the servant who lurks constantly in the background providing, with his very body language, a comic running commentary. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Stack
The richness of characters make this movie shine. It's just that, somehow, a certain sense of fire is missing. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
The film lacks flow, unfolding in a rat-a-tat series of short, artfully lensed scenes -- individually nice but collectively jerky. Read full review
70
The New York TimesLawrence Van Gelder
Written and directed by Deepa Mehta, this glossy melodrama, mixing references to Indian mysticism and the epic poetry of the "Ramayana" with late-20th-century feminism, teeters unsteadily between sociology and soap opera. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
As a director, Mehta would do well to stop smothering her empathy in glibness (she uses the family's ancient mute grandmother as a sitcom prank), but her empathy pokes through nonetheless. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
For a film with such volatile subject matter, the performances are subdued and naturalistic. Fire burns with a rare flame. Read full review
60
EmpireDavid Parkinson
Audacious, yet sensitive, Fire may shock traditionalists but is the sort of film that ought to win Indian cinema a whole new audience. Read full review
50
San Francisco ExaminerWalter Addiego
The title comes from Indian legend in which Lord Rama tests the purity of his wife by a flaming ordeal (which we see enacted in an open-air pageant with comic overtones of Bunuel). This bit of mythology too handily prefigures a major element in the film's conclusion. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Fire is designed to provoke questions and spark debate. Mission accomplished, but, despite a heartfelt tone that pervades its every moment, it doesn't do much else. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Written and directed by Deepa Mehta, this Indian production is not filmed very interestingly, but reveals much about conflicts between traditional and modern attitudes in Indian society. Read full review
40
VarietyBrendan Kelly
The third feature from this Indian-born writer-director... is an underwhelming effort that adds little new to the debate over arranged marriages and fails to ignite much interest in the problems faced by two frustrated New Delhi wives. Read full review
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