2009 Directed by Claire McCarthy
An outwardly happy Australian couple journey to Calcutta to collect their adopted baby, but on arrival find that the arrangements have yet to be finalized. Soon, the intoxicating mystic power of the Indian city pulls them in separate and unexpected directions, and the vulnerability of their marriage begins to reveal itself.
Umut Şehri, העיר הממתינה, Градът на очакванията, À Espera de Lakshmi
Canada
Toronto International Film Festival
AustraliaM
USAR
Australia
Canada
USA
A sensitive, lovely relationship film with some imperfections. Radha Mitchell's un-self-conscious acting is well displayed, and the point of view is shared by Joel Edgerton, wife Fiona and husband Ben on a trip to India to collect their adoptive child. The culture and ambience of the place dwell on both of them, primarily on Fiona, who encounters repeated mother images that disquiet and ultimately stun her. The story is as much about her relationship with India as with her husband, and whether the experience and strain will come between them. Although some of the narrative is rather familiar, the humanistic approach lifts it above the "chick flick" approach that Hollywood would have used, and makes it a bright spot in this somewhat hidebound genre.
This movie makes me so angry. Not only do they do the whole “set against and exotic backdrop” bullshit, but the female lead is insufferable. Sorry but I do not feel bad for her at all. She is so patronising like when she is taking off her shoes at the temple and tells the guy how expensive they are and the scene where she puts on the garbs making fun of the woman. Clearly, you don’t care enough about the child u just want a Band-Aid. The husband was great tho, loved him.
And us, The Waiting Audience. A lot of nothing happens storywise from the time an Australian couple arrives in India to claim the child they adopted. As delays occur, the couple begins to doubt their commitment to a family and to each other.
The one good reason to watch this is to get a very good sense of modern life in India, filmed entirely on location in & around Calcutta. Dizzying street activity and peculiar (to Western eyes) ceremonies are fascinating to watch, including a wedding and a funeral in which the dead body is sent downriver on a raft - the same river people bathe and wash clothes in. Ick. With one of the most populous countries in the world,…
I might've found this movie more exotic were I not Asian. The whole mystical life-waiting-death thing seemed utterly dismal and pointless.
