BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

jjploquin Boring, I can take. Revolting I can take. But boring and revolting i can't. In the name of cultural diversity, some would make us believe that all cultures are equally respectable, that one must not judge other cultures with one's preconceptions and biases. Sorry but I cannot accept that. This culture (???) is the shame of humanity.

ThurstonHunger So often times I find I am most appreciated in my role as husband, the less I say. Honestly, it came up the evening before I watched this film. That being said, I'm not quite willing to take a bullet in the neck to help the process. Alas only a bullet and no Oscar for Hamid Djavadan as the husband in this film. Although it used to be a theory that mute actresses could win an award for similar roles.Golshifteh Farahani is the actress here, and far from mute, she finds her voice/strength/resolve. Her beauty is striking, did anyone else find that detracted some from the dire dilapidation of her village and situation. The filmmakers did try to muss her up some, but in "The Patience Stone" we are reminded again that a jewel in the rough is still a jewel. Radiant.And this film is all hers, with perhaps the most soliloquies you'll see this side of graduation week at an arts college. Her face runs an impressive gamut of expression, but as I bought the air of impending danger (one scene in particular with a neighbor driven mad really resonated), that I had a hard time with her character registering anything more than shock. Granted I realize far too many people (and children) grow up in such troubling circumstances, and that alone is mind-boggling. (And soul-shaking.) There are interesting side-story and back-story aspects (The Aunt!!) so perhaps the book would be best to start with (I had intended to, but didn't get around to it.) Mostly this film is a story of perhaps the most impossible marital counseling one could ever expect.Although, there are some things I bet you will expect while watching it, and while the fair Ms. Farahani is Iranian, this film is definitely French and becomes so the more it progresses.Still something different to watch and contemplate (no Fatwa so far for the director). I did learn of Dari (a Farsi variant from Afghanistan, but I've no clue what native speakers of either thought about this film, and I would be curious.) Also the yellow burqa was an indelible image. I looked a little for Islamic symbolism for the same. Watching Farahani flip it on and still infuse that billowing robe with her energy was eye-catching. I did wonder as she went into a pharmacy at one point how people could quickly tell who is who in such a situation. I imagine it can be done, something about the specific burqa and how the woman moves within it....of course the voice, but it seems having a stunt double or misdirection/fake alibi by virtue of the burqa could happen.Probably identifying women in their burqas is easier than I can imagine, but perhaps misleading mullahs is easier than they too can imagine? Let me know when that film is made ;> The film definitely felt more like a play come to the big screen than a book, but perhaps the book was streamlined to fit. Guess I'd recommend trying to read it first, but watching the film is worth one's while, especially for fawning fans of Farahani.By the way, perhaps leaving some stones unturned is okay?

leplatypus In "Body of State", Golshifteh was great as an unbelievable native girlfriend of an American spy. Today, she is still great as an unbelievable abused "afghan" (?) wife. So her talent is never questioned (all the more that she may us forget that with her long monologue, she is actually alone) but it's her characters that have defects. In "Syngue Sabour", her father beats her, he gives her sister to pay a debt, she is forced wife, her husband is gone the wedding day, he is impotent so she has children from another man to escape repudiation, he is badly wounded at the war so she has to look after him, she met a stuttering lover, and finally, she lives in the middle of a war. Well, it's too much for a young mother and finally her story isn't credible. In addition, her character is full of contradictions: does she love her children or are they a burden? If her husband is so bad, why all her care? Has she fall with the soldier or does she plays with him ? And what about her final fate ?Worst, the world she lives in isn't explained: You can't figure where, when and what happens. The city itself isn't shown: you don't know where lives the aunt (or what she does), where's the house, the pharmacy. You are stuck in this bare room with its cave and its garden. In a way, with such a twisted tale and without exposition, everything is done to break the emotion. For those who would like to find a cry for Muslim woman, it's a disappointment because as it's too much on a side, it lacks a balanced truth. And it's not about spirituality per se but rather gender relationships in another culture.But, it's not totally crap either: Goldshifteh carries the whole movie on her courageous shoulders. She is intense as she experiences a hard life without any comfort and succeeds nonetheless to find happiness and peace. In a way, with such plot holes and exaggeration, the story could pass for a fairy tale except that it's not for kid but rather adult oriented as it's desire that's exposed.

corrosion-2 The Patience Stone is based on an old Persian fable about a stone to whom one can confide all one's problems and worries. Here though the stone is an Afghan man, reduced to a vegetable state by the war. His wife (Golshifteh Farahani) uses his inability to comprehend and talk back to tell him things that she would not dare to say otherwise. With his disability she's been left to feed herself, her two children and continue buying medicine to keep her husband alive. The only job available for an Afghan woman in her desperate situation it seems is prostitution.Atiq Rahimi has directed from his own novel. He wrote the script with the renowned veteran screen writer Jean-Claude Carrierre. It is, I feel, a story best suited to theatre with its long monologues. The film however, belongs to and is carried by Golshifteh Farahani's magnificent performance. This is a very tough role where she has to, for most part, talk to a body lying motionless and unresponsive on the ground, unable to engage in any dialogue. A poetic film which is not for all tastes but which will richly reward those who appreciate its form and messages.