This movie is about the daily routine of a simple, rural Turkish family; a father (who collects honey for a living), a mother (who works around the home), and a child (who goes to school). The story is told from the perspective of the child, a young boy.
"Daily routine" is the key phrase here, because this is exactly what you see. Nothing particularly eventful happens until towards the end of the movie. So basically you watch the kid going to school, and at school; the father going to work, and at work; the mother working around the home, harvesting or cooking. Interspersed among this is the occasional meal at table with modest conversation and interaction, and some brief father and son time around the home. That's it.
The only drama or suspense for most of the movie concerns the difficulty the boy is having learning to read which threads throughout the film to the very end. What I've described would be completely uninteresting told from an adult perspective. So it's the boy who is carrying this movie (cute kid). It's his perspective --which is very serious and thoughtful-- that holds your attention any length of time. But we are, to be honest, not only interested in the boy's character in the film, but also the boy playing the character himself. He is impressively disciplined for someone that young. But even the greatest actor needs something to work with besides daily routine which I can see anytime I want to by looking out my window. So I did zone out after awhile (No, I don't do drugs!) near the middle of the film somewhere.
One of the noteworthy and curious things about the movie is how subdued this family is; disciplined even. There are no great expressions of happiness or sadness for most of the film. There was the brief smile once in awhile, but that's as far as it went; a serious expression on all faces dominated throughout. So I didn't get the impression that this was a particularly happy family. But at the same time, I didn't feel that it was out of the norm either. So maybe they were happy --or at least content "in their own way".
Finally, I did not like the way the movie ended for principally 2 reasons: (1) This is a simple, hard-working family that did not have that much and did not "seem" all that happy to begin with. (2) The movie again, was pretty uneventful, as described, and so the only way it could possibly sustain your interest from beginning to end is if you like this family. I did. And so for these 2 reasons Boloxxxi felt like he was kicked in the nuts by the writer. A plague on the bastard! Love (Ironic, aren't I?), Boloxxxi.
"Daily routine" is the key phrase here, because this is exactly what you see. Nothing particularly eventful happens until towards the end of the movie. So basically you watch the kid going to school, and at school; the father going to work, and at work; the mother working around the home, harvesting or cooking. Interspersed among this is the occasional meal at table with modest conversation and interaction, and some brief father and son time around the home. That's it.
The only drama or suspense for most of the movie concerns the difficulty the boy is having learning to read which threads throughout the film to the very end. What I've described would be completely uninteresting told from an adult perspective. So it's the boy who is carrying this movie (cute kid). It's his perspective --which is very serious and thoughtful-- that holds your attention any length of time. But we are, to be honest, not only interested in the boy's character in the film, but also the boy playing the character himself. He is impressively disciplined for someone that young. But even the greatest actor needs something to work with besides daily routine which I can see anytime I want to by looking out my window. So I did zone out after awhile (No, I don't do drugs!) near the middle of the film somewhere.
One of the noteworthy and curious things about the movie is how subdued this family is; disciplined even. There are no great expressions of happiness or sadness for most of the film. There was the brief smile once in awhile, but that's as far as it went; a serious expression on all faces dominated throughout. So I didn't get the impression that this was a particularly happy family. But at the same time, I didn't feel that it was out of the norm either. So maybe they were happy --or at least content "in their own way".
Finally, I did not like the way the movie ended for principally 2 reasons: (1) This is a simple, hard-working family that did not have that much and did not "seem" all that happy to begin with. (2) The movie again, was pretty uneventful, as described, and so the only way it could possibly sustain your interest from beginning to end is if you like this family. I did. And so for these 2 reasons Boloxxxi felt like he was kicked in the nuts by the writer. A plague on the bastard! Love (Ironic, aren't I?), Boloxxxi.