Silent Light

Name: Silent Light
Genre: Drama
Released: January 7, 2009
Duration: 136 min
Rating: 79

2009

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Ratings

See All

7.6

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

7.6	Your Score
7.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Movie Details & Credits

Palisades Tartan | Release Date: January 7, 2009

Summary: Johan and his family are Mennonites from the north of Mexico. Against the law of God and man, Johan falls in love with another woman. (Bac Films)

Director: Carlos Reygadas

Genre(s): Drama

Runtime: 136 min

See All Details and Credits

Watch Now

Buy on

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

100

Roger Ebert

What the film is really about is people who see themselves and their values as an organic whole. There are no pious displays here. No sanctimony, no preaching. Never even the word "religion." Just Johan, Esther and Marianne, all doing their best. Read full review

100

Reyhan Harmanci

A film filled with beauty and pain that moves at the pace of molasses and snails. That is to say, some of it is in real time. Audiences would be advised to stay caffeinated. Read full review

100

Scott Tobias

At bottom, Silent Light is less about faith than matters of the heart, and in Reygadas' hands, the ache is bone-deep. Read full review

V.A. Musetto

As is his custom, Reygadas uses a mostly nonprofessional cast; and, as expected, he draws remarkably realistic performances. Read full review

Kirk Honeycutt

Reygadas has hitched his austere and protracted style to an allegorical tale of subtle strength and depth. Read full review

Andrew O'Hehir

It's amazingly beautiful and it tests your patience; both things are par for the course with Reygadas, After that, you've either surrendered to his idiosyncratic sense of rhythm, or you're out of there. Read full review

David Edelstein

This director is too calculating to hold our trust for long, and skepticism will kill transcendence every time. Read full review

SEE ALL 14 REVIEWS

Write a Review

User Reviews

RobertoReis

Jan 21, 2012

The finest film to date of one of the most important emerging filmmakers. Carlos Reygadas' Silent Light is an experience rather than a movie. Very rewardable.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

ryancarroll88

Aug 26, 2010

Every scene could be counterposed as an impressionist art piece and the plot is meant to trigger your inner philosopher rather than your outer romantic. Basically it is a film that is meant to make you feel something - what the hell?

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

SibylP

Jan 20, 2009

Yes, the pace is slow, the resolution somewhat limited, but this is an unusual, beautiful film. The actors are not professional and what a relief from Hollywood emoting. Many shots are bold in their restraint, breaking convention. The language and look of the characters are a revelation. It Yes, the pace is slow, the resolution somewhat limited, but this is an unusual, beautiful film. The actors are not professional and what a relief from Hollywood emoting. Many shots are bold in their restraint, breaking convention. The language and look of the characters are a revelation. It takes us to a seemingly faraway time and place. And it was worth the price of admission for the wide shot of the cows coming in the barn. Risky, odd, inventive, this is a director's film. He worked magic with stop motion for dawn and dusk. Brilliant shots, memorable.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

Warrior

Jan 10, 2009

0 of 0 users found this helpful

JBBu

Feb 22, 2013

This film is a beautiful, but trying slide show of European style art film mostly made up of wide angle symmetry (often with a lighted doorway window in the center) on a stationary camera on a tripod. The closest it gets to action is when the camera occasionally pans or slowly zooms. TheThis film is a beautiful, but trying slide show of European style art film mostly made up of wide angle symmetry (often with a lighted doorway window in the center) on a stationary camera on a tripod. The closest it gets to action is when the camera occasionally pans or slowly zooms. The subtitles are barely necessary since there is very little dialogue. And it works wonderfully. There is an intriguing reference to Gabriel García Márquez's and Lisandro Duque Naranjo's "Milagro En Roma" in the film.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

jeremyp

Jun 2, 2012

If you like to watch paint dry in slow motion, then this is for you. A 20 minute plot dragged out to over 2 hours. Basically the Director points the camera at someone/something then moves the camera in at a snails pace.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

BladeLover2049

Aug 17, 2018

Silence without something to say. Gestures that say nothing, or very little. Tears that scream so loud, but words that say so little. Lives without movement, but light that illuminates the soul. This film finds what it does not look for. It is lost in simple cinephile winks, abstractions andSilence without something to say. Gestures that say nothing, or very little. Tears that scream so loud, but words that say so little. Lives without movement, but light that illuminates the soul. This film finds what it does not look for. It is lost in simple cinephile winks, abstractions and in visual complacencies. It is not a reflection on the nature of the soul, it is simply a mirror to it ... but it only reflects and does not make us look.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

SEE ALL 7 REVIEWS