86
Metascore
22 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100VarietyJay WeissbergVarietyJay WeissbergEven more than in his previous film, Ceylan and his fellow scriptwriters (wife Ebru Ceylan along with Akın Aksu, also acting) develop astonishingly complex spoken recitatives that weave philosophy, religious tradition, and ethics together into a mesmerizing verbal fugue.
- 100CineVueMartyn ConterioCineVueMartyn ConterioThe Wild Pear Tree isn’t a showy or boldly radical work, this is still Ceylan’s brand of poetic landscapes and intimate dramas, but it does represent an intriguing artistic progression, so any claims of ‘more of the same’ are redundant.
- 100The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawThe Wild Pear Tree is a gentle, humane, beautifully made and magnificently acted movie.
- 100The TelegraphRobbie CollinThe TelegraphRobbie CollinCeylan expertly draws your eye and ear to the drama behind the drama, and gives the most gently naturalistic scenes the weight and grain of visions. The word visionary has been flogged by the film business to the point of redundancy, but with The Wild Pear Tree, Ceylan reminds us he has earned every letter of it.
- 91The Film StageRory O'ConnorThe Film StageRory O'ConnorThe staggering emotional payoff — a transcendental moment so beautiful in its simplicity that the previous three hours of seriousness appear to melt away — is worth every last minute.
- 90Village VoiceBilge EbiriVillage VoiceBilge EbiriCeylan delivers what might be his funniest, most politically poignant work yet. It also happens to be achingly personal.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungThe Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungSlow and surprisingly talky, the three hours of the film do not exactly fly by, and the experience is similar to plunging into a long novel (the hero is a budding novelist) laced with philosophy, religion, politics and moral puzzles. The final sequences are worth the wait, though, bringing together the story’s many threads and offering the classic closure of a young man coming to terms with his identity.
- 80Screen DailyDan FainaruScreen DailyDan FainaruCeylan’s script reveals a stagnating provincial world, characters all handling their thwarted hopes and inevitable resignations in their own way.