It’s a low-key message movie, but it still packs a punch.
Comment
04/05/07
Provoked (2007)
27 %
Reviews Counted: 33 Fresh: 9 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.
Rated: 15
Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins
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 Rai) arrives at the doorstep of her new home and life with husband Deepak (Naveen Andrews). She... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Aishwarya Rai, Naveen Andrews, Miranda Richardson, Rebecca Pidgeon, Robbie Coltrane
Reviews
Top Critic
Provoked 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 Critic
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
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 Critic
Holy 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
Director Jag Mundhra expends so much energy and screen time to sway us to take Kiranjit's side -- really, we're on her side, we're on her side -- that he doesn't have much left over for anything else.
05/11/07
Top CriticRelated Forums
(2007 USA release)-Aishwarya Rai's new film PROVOKED opens on May 11th!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 5/17/07
by: REEL_REVIEWER 5/17/07
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