Although I understand why "Tangerines" is a public favorite, I can't really get aboard the hype train regarding this Estonian-Georgian production.
Whichever good intentions had the director Zaza Urushadze on producing this anti-war statement, they were lost within a very timid plot, which lacks the confidence to set itself free from all the conventions of this kind of story.
I found "Tangerines"'s plot utterly clichéd, predictable, emotionally manipulative, and its characters were carved paper thin. I don't demand intricate stories to tell such simple, yet important lessons like the futility of war, but there's a difference between simplicity and predictability.
The great interpretations from the cast (especially from Lembit Ulfsak (Ivo) and Giorgi Nakashidze (Ahmed)) and the compelling visuals of "Tangerines" can't save the film from its thin argument, and even though I don't doubt Urushadze's integrity to tell a story that touches such sensible topics from Estonia's recent History, he can't turn it more compelling than any given Hollywood war movie.
Whichever good intentions had the director Zaza Urushadze on producing this anti-war statement, they were lost within a very timid plot, which lacks the confidence to set itself free from all the conventions of this kind of story.
I found "Tangerines"'s plot utterly clichéd, predictable, emotionally manipulative, and its characters were carved paper thin. I don't demand intricate stories to tell such simple, yet important lessons like the futility of war, but there's a difference between simplicity and predictability.
The great interpretations from the cast (especially from Lembit Ulfsak (Ivo) and Giorgi Nakashidze (Ahmed)) and the compelling visuals of "Tangerines" can't save the film from its thin argument, and even though I don't doubt Urushadze's integrity to tell a story that touches such sensible topics from Estonia's recent History, he can't turn it more compelling than any given Hollywood war movie.