Critic Reviews

• 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.

• Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

  Chicken is a movie that begins with a crescendo and doesn't sustain its lyricism.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Tom Horgen, Minneapolis Star Tribune

  For the most part it's a savory treat, much like the titular dish.

• Matt Kelemen, Las Vegas CityLife

  unfurls in a dazzling set of sequences and montages that demonstrates everything shown to us - like marriage and society itself - may not be as it seems, or what it should have been.

• Eric Kohn, indieWIRE

  While visually scrumptious, the movie struggles to reach a greater profundity that it never quite obtains, but its childlike emulation of a grand tragedy is indelibly precious.

• Nathan Southern, TV Guide's Movie Guide

  On a scene-by-scene basis, much of Chicken With Plums delivers satisfactorily, but it adds up to much less than the sum of its many parts.

• Oliver Lyttelton, The Playlist

  There are pleasures to be found in Chicken with Plums to be certain, but we'd hope for something a little more satisfying next time out from the directing team.

• Eric Melin, Scene-Stealers.com

  ...an admirable trip down the rabbit hole of a lonely man's mind and inspiration, but it loses its way about halfway through the movie and feels like a series of inspired, lovely short films, held together by the barest of threads.

• Todd Jorgenson, Cinemalogue.com

  ... uneven blend of whimsy and surrealism that's visually compelling but narratively flat.

• Robert Denerstein, Movie Habit

  Takes its time creating sad beauty

• Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

  Resurrects the spirit of Middle Eastern fables, albeit with a French twist.

• Sean Means, Salt Lake Tribune

  [Amalric] anchors Satrapi and Paronnaud's magical visual range and an emotional journey that zips from ecstasy to tragedy and back again.

• Lawrence Toppman, Charlotte Observer

  Satrapi and Parronnaud give us clues but no solution. The fun, for those of us who like fairy tales, is in guessing.

• Bob Bloom, Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)

  Directors Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi use various cinematic tricks to examine their protagonist and his life. Voice-over narration, animation and music are a few of the options with which they compose their narration.

• Mike Russell, Oregonian

  It's fascinating as an offbeat storytelling exercise.

• James Verniere, Boston Herald

  Tepid stew.

• Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle

  Fluctuating between the extraordinary and the dull, with sections of narrative explication and tangents, Chicken With Plums can be as frustrating as it is ambitious. It's more like Chicken With Plums -- and the Kitchen Sink.

Read all 21 critic reviews