One of my all time favorites.

Excellent adaptation.

As Good As It Gets

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

How do I get it all into just 1000 words? Having read some negative reviews before watching the movie, I set out to prove them wrong. I can't. This is a TERRIBLE movie! I'll just list a few of its most glaring flaws:(1) The dialog is about half in unintelligible English, half in Armenian; the DVD subtitles translate Armenian into English but leave us to struggle alone through mumbled English and VERY heavily accented and garbled Armenglish; the closed captions do the opposite, giving the English dialog ONLY; all through the movie I had to switch back and forth between subtitles and closed captions as the characters switched between Armenian and English; it was infuriating.(2) ALL of the dialog is stilted, pretentious, moronic crap, but EVEN WORSE than the dialog is the mind-bogglingly stupid pseudo-mythological narration read by poor Peter Coyote, who must be desperate for work.(3) In some scenes, extremely shallow depth of field and oblique angles caused the camera to have to shift focus constantly, which completely ruined whatever was going on and gave me a headache; it was most noticeable when Will was writing an email, but the focus shifting happened pretty often; maybe it was supposed to be artistic, but it was just distracting.(4) Ben Foster is TERRIBLY - and I do mean TERRIBLY - miscast in this movie, and he seems to be angry about it all the way through. I have never seen such obvious discomfort IN EVERY SCENE from any actor in any movie. It's like watching him sulk for two hours. Besides making the whole movie irritating, his extreme discomfort kills whatever chemistry there is supposed to be between his Will and Lubna Azabal's Gadarine.(5) Braden King is an untalented narcissist. He should NEVER be allowed to make another movie! Maybe he can get a job at Burger King in some small town I'll never have to visit.

at first sigh, a film about nothing. in fact, a mirror. or a trip. or a basket of questions. a poem. and frame of a meeting. the gorgeous images from Armenia, the faces and words of characters, the Romanian "Bun e vinul ghiurghiuliu" in a bus from Caucasus are only ingredients. but the subject of film is importance of roots. discover of sense. silence as aura. and delicate steps of self image. a film about birth of miracle. and about sparkles of its cell. nothing else. nothing more. so, all common pieces are different. the man in a strange country in search of pure freedom. a woman who describes her as result of her pictures. an Armenian family. few friends. and the shadow of gestures. essence of story - the church. the window as stick. the priest in Holy Liturgy. the nuns. and the solitude of stranger far by his guide.

Here is different in many ways. Too many to really outline in a review... and different and great in one spot is really really hard to find in cinema these days...I would say that it is a very refreshing, meditative work of art for those of us who seek more in life. If you are into self awareness and philosophy in life and can open up to it, Here will take you on a journey that is very interesting in a unique way.A lot of films over the decades have attempted this, in spite of the virtual business suicide that they are, but Here presents it in a contemporary, realist, utilitarian view that is so new.Ben Foster and Lubna Azabal are two very good actors who get to shine in subtlety... I really wish Ben got more big roles and especially that Lubna was better represented in American / English speaking roles....Braden King struggled to make this and from looking at the website did some unusual fundraising to get it over the finish line.... he ended up with something well worth your time, I hope it gets some recognition for the top flight, non standard fare it is....

This is one of those movies that let one wander ones own masochistic tendencies. There are some interesting premises, the exotic allure of the Armenian location, known and usually decent actors, a background of a complex and modern conflict and the human interest of a different culture. All is wasted. From the first moment of the movies one realizes that it is an exercise in narcissism. All unveils on incredible slow pace, with the long shots of landscapes, glances and a mostly discontinued episodic narrative. The type of film you can leave for coffee and return to without missing much. At the end it boils down to the story of a rather uninteresting romance interspersed with insufferable dullard voice-overs and tedious pretentious imagery. Avoid.