It’s a low-key message movie, but it still packs a punch.
Comment
04/05/07
Provoked (2007)
29
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:34
Fresh:10
Rotten:24
Average Rating:4.5/10
Consensus: Provoked's story is worth telling, but the hammy dialogue and heavy-handed direction doesn't give it the refined treatment it deserves.
Theatrical Release:06-04-2007
Synopsis: "Provoked" is the true story of a battered wife who fought back, first against her husband and then against the system. Full of optimism and affection, newlywed Kiranjit Ahluwalia (Aishwarya... [More]
Starring: Aishwarya Rai, Naveen Andrews, Miranda Richardson, Rebecca Pidgeon
Director: Jag Mundhra
Reviews for Provoked
Top CriticProvoked is just about worth seeing for its important subject matter and for Aishwarya Rai's performance but it's a real struggle at times, due to the astonishingly inept direction.
04/05/07
Provoked avoids sentimentality and illustrates how one woman's bravery helped fuel a nationwide crusade and irrevocably altered British laws on domestic violence.
04/03/07
Top CriticA melodrama dressed up just enough to hold interest, in the retelling of an undeniably important story.
07/30/09
What should have turned out as a terrific movie about the crime of spousal abuse has instead received the equivalent of a ham-handed molestation by director Mundhra.
06/08/07
By offsetting Women in Cages-style throw-downs with Malcolm X-like uplift, it is simultaneously strange and familiar, inspiring and annoying.
05/30/07
The real-life heroes in this story deserve better than a formulaic, poorly shot melodrama.
05/21/07
The script is melodramatic, and Rai's lead performance is thin stuff.
05/18/07
[Director] Mundhra can't control the expansiveness of the melodrama or focus on the terseness of realism. Every character in Provoked, from victims to tyrants, Indian to English, loud to quiet, ends up as a grossly exaggerated comic creation.
05/18/07
In the end, Provoked is not provocative enough.
05/18/07
Provoked rarely ducks below its glossy surface.
05/18/07
feels largely meaningless and inconsequential
05/17/07
The true-crime drama Provoked has everything to offer except a cinematic point of view and a knack for depicting human beings under duress. Those are major drawbacks.
05/17/07
Unfortunately, Provoked possesses the tinny production values and schmaltzy music of a prime-time special, despite its ensemble of terrific actors.
05/17/07
Account of a legal campaign launched by women to expose the brutality of domestic violence and male chauvinism.
05/17/07
Director Jag Mundhra doesn't do enough to clarify that killing, however horrible the man, really isn't okay, even for beautiful women.
05/16/07
In keeping its inflammatory subject matter at arm’s length, Provoked does exactly the same to its audience.
05/14/07
Top CriticHoly Burning Bed! If Britain had its own equivalent of the Lifetime channel, "Provoked" would be tailor made for it.
05/12/07
PROVOKED: A TRUE STORY sets out to tell an important story in the history of the British judicial system. Unfortunately, the project was undertaken by filmmakers who seemingly didn't know how to handle the implications of the story they wanted to tell.
05/11/07
Soapy sermon about the landmark case of a battered wife.
05/11/07
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