Before the Rains 2007

Jessica Reaves, Chicago Tribune: The problem isn't just that the material is cliched and vaguely offensive....It's more that the plot is incredibly predictable, the score is manipulative and the denouement completely unsatisfying. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Rahul Bose has a winning presence -- eager with a touch of wariness or wary with a touch of eagerness, and never entirely at home. He keeps the movie from seeming too comfy -- a good thing. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Producer Ismail Merchant died in 2005, but Merchant Ivory's stuffy tradition of quality lives on. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: It might have been more convincing if it had emphasized personalities rather than types. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: With all these volatile emotions at play, Before The Rains should percolate like The Postman Always Rings Twice, but... well... it's a Merchant-Ivory production, after all. Read more

Ethan Gilsdorf, Boston Globe: Read more

Loren Lankford, Entertainment Weekly: Unfortunately, the parade of consequences brought on by the affair has little emotional substance. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: When the rains in Before the Rains finally arrive, there's nothing to cleanse, no real dirt to wash away -- not with history already so neatly packaged and polished to a dull shine. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: The film is well-acted, a broad colonial allegory, and again, visually gorgeous. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: Merchant-Ivory productions are usually visual delights, and Before the Rains is no exception. Pity that the direction and narrative lack passion. If there's anything a story of interracial adultery needs, it's passion. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: A lovely, lyrical film with perfect timing that is a welcome relief from BlackBerrys, iPods, gas taxes, punk rock, the failing economy and the boredom of cutthroat election campaigns. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Before the Rains is never less than compelling, but never more than adequately realized. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I can't quite recommend it. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: So pretty and so utterly lifeless you can almost smell the embalming fluid coming off the screen. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It's definitely good, definitely a little bit boring. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It's standard soap opera dramaturgy in wrinkled linens, loincloths and saris. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Philip Marchand, Toronto Star: India has rarely looked so beautiful onscreen. Against the anguish of his human characters, director Santosh Sivan juxtaposes a tranquil, green world in the hills of the southwestern state of Keralain 1937, 10 years before independence. Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: Read more

Mark Holcomb, Time Out: No amount of lingering shots of nature's rich pageant can make up for its lack of human involvement. Read more

Eddie Cockrell, Variety: The emotionally charged mysteries of his breakthrough feature, The Terrorist, have given way to laborious narrative convention in Indian helmer Santosh Sivan's latest, English-lingo period meller Before the Rains. Read more

Julia Wallace, Village Voice: Director Santosh Sivan imparts a vastness and a sense of wonder to the film, qualities reminiscent of a Thomas Cole painting: They remind you why the Brits thought conquering India was a good idea in the first place. Read more

Adam Bernstein, Washington Post: A predictable patchwork of forbidden romance, English arrogance, a gun given as a gift, suicide, corruption, deception, rising Indian nationalism and a short-lived chase through the jungle. Read more