Poulet aux prunes 2011

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: Chicken with Plums is well-acted across the board, but it is Amalric's movie. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: This richly embroidered tale feels more anecdotal than epic, less like a fully imagined film than like a series of beguiling and beautiful pictures. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: This dreamy, visually inventive Iranian drama functions on so many levels of reality and obsession that it almost ceases to entertain. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: The nested narrative structure gives the movie a sense of inevitability that makes it all the more powerful when Almaric's wife and kids try to figure out what could make him happy. Read more

Mark Feeney, Boston Globe: "Predictability" is not in Satrapi and Paronnaud's vocabulary, and that is no small thing in this or any other movie era. But the whole those parts form never exceeds their sum. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The filmmakers rely on expressive eyes to carry a narrative style suitable for a silent movie. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The story lacks the historical sweep of Persepolis... this often plays like a bummed-out Amelie. Read more

Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter: Live-action follow-up to "Persepolis" set in 1950s Iran blends humor and poetry with delightful artistry. Read more

Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times: It's not entirely satisfying, but there's plenty to savor in "Chicken With Plums." Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: This highly stylized, often beautiful rumination on life and art and the choices we make just sort of lies there, waiting to expire. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: Its storytelling style is playful and self-conscious, with magically unrealist touches. Read more

Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post: The many surreal flourishes, like the film's giant breasts and petals floating through a pink-tinged sky, are supposed to be absolved of cringing obviousness because they're, you know, poetic and exotic. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Chicken is a movie that begins with a crescendo and doesn't sustain its lyricism. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It is all melancholy and loss, and delightfully comedic, with enough but not too much magic realism. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It is the story of a man who, disappointed by life and love, decides to go to bed and die. And the movie does the same - only it dies a full hour before the finish. Read more

Tom Horgen, Minneapolis Star Tribune: For the most part it's a savory treat, much like the titular dish. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Resurrects the spirit of Middle Eastern fables, albeit with a French twist. Read more

Eric Hynes, Time Out: With all the furious wand-waving, the story itself never gets to cast much of a spell. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Chicken With Plums is not a thoroughly delectable concoction, but its exotic flavor is worth sampling. Read more

Jay Weissberg, Variety: The same winning balance of seriousness and humor that made Persepolis such a hit works equally well in Chicken With Plums. Read more

Chris Packham, Village Voice: The honest undercurrent of melancholy keeps the whole thing from becoming unmoored. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "Chicken With Plums" is a whimsical, sad, diverting and altogether delightful exploration of how cinema can benefit, not only from glancing back at its own past, but by staying open to parallel forms of presentation and play. Read more