Secret Ballot
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: August 9, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Secret Ballot is an education hiding in a comedy, a parablelike portrait of the irresistible forces of modernization and democracy meeting the immovable inertia of tradition, culture and power relations written in the blood of the past. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Payami's gentle comedy captures a subtle range of human feelings through a quietly inventive visual style that embodies the best life-affirming tendencies of modern Iranian film. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Secret Ballot, which has a rich, spare score by Michael Galasso that blends Eastern and Western motifs, is funny, provocative, well-paced and leaves a memorable bittersweet aftertaste. Read full review
90
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
As much as any earnest historical drama, Secret Ballot serves as an eloquent argument for civic life, showing its human elements to be no less flawed for being so necessary. Read full review
90
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Payami uses an exquisitely delicate juxtaposition of long shots and close-ups, mobility and stillness, music and found sound, comedy and pathos to suggest both the longing for self-expression and communication, and its limits in a repressive society. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
A finely crafted entertainment that works better than most current Hollywood movies. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
A real winner -- smart, funny, subtle, and resonant -- and there's not a hanging chad in sight. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Yet another film from Iran that has the leisurely pace, sly humor and incontrovertible wisdom of a Sufi parable. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Charms with its amalgam of absurdity, optimism, humor, and avuncular regard for the million small daily chores, rituals, suspicions, and courtesies of dwellers on even the sparsest spots on earth. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Corliss
The film's spare wit is as applicable to Broward County as to the Persian Gulf. Secret Ballot offers further evidence that an Islamic regime can foster humanist satires with a critical, political edge. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
A psychic journey deep into the very fabric of Iranian (and by extension, all) life. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeJanice Page
Ride it out, and you will find the rewards modest but meaningful.
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Ray Conlogue
A beguiling, slow-moving parable. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Payami has a visual style that is sometimes astonishing, sometimes frustrating, sometimes both. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldMarta Barber
Secret of this 'Ballot' lies in its humor, charm and universality. Read full review
75
Chicago TribunePatrick Z. McGavin
Reserves its sharpest jabs at the harshly circumscribed lives of women in Iran. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
A funny, puzzling movie ambiguous enough to be engaging and oddly moving. Read full review
70
New Times (L.A.)Jean Oppenheimer
Offers both a gentle humor and a sly but unmistakable optimism about what life in Iran might one day be.
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
The drawn-out effect is deliberate -- director Babak Payami wants his audience to concentrate on the characters' inner development and their isolation -- but his strategy slows the film down to a crawl. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Methodical, measured, and gently tedious in its comedy, Secret Ballot is a purposefully reductive movie—which may be why it's so successful at lodging itself in the brain. Read full review
63
New York PostJonathan Foreman
With its endless takes of characters silently waiting, say, or getting out of bed, this is the kind of film that can be seen only after a full night's sleep. But it is also clever, funny and sometimes moving. Read full review
50
VarietyDeborah Young
An enjoyable absurdist comedy. Read full review
50
The New York TimesDave Kehr
A very minor contribution to the great corpus of Iranian cinema that has emerged in the last 20 years. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Pleasing low-key comedy. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleCarla Meyer
Too contemplative to be really funny. Read full review
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