It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The acting in this movie is really good.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This is an 8+ star movie in my opinion. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to figure out why the movie's been shouted down to 6.2 on IMDb. All I can say is, if the embarrassing shoe fits your backward culture, wear it.OK, I'm supposed to fill up space, according to IMDb, so here goes.An Iranian-American physician, living in Michigan, decides to move himself, his wife, and his daughter back to Iran, without cluing his family in to his intentions. Once in Iran, the man can't find a job, becomes completely unhinged, and refuses to let his wife and daughter return to America.Some examples of familial warmth: the doctor doesn't allow his wife to use the telephone in her own house, enlists friends and family members to spy on her, and repeatedly beats her and threatens her with death if she tries to leave Iran with his daughter. It's like 'Father Knows Best', but with a lot more emphasis on paranoia and revenge.Throw in scenes of daily life in Iran, and you come away with the following lesson: People who want normal lives, particularly for their wives and daughters, shouldn't move to a Moslem country.I found 'Not Without My Daughter' compelling from start to finish. If you're used to thinking of Sally Field as Forrest Gump's Mom, this will definitely help you get over that. Sally's great.

"I don't know how to say this to you. We're not going back. We're staying here."Not Without My Daughter is basically a family drama that focuses on spouses from two very different cultures that clash together. Sally Field plays Betty, an American woman who has been happily married in the States with her Iranian husband, Moody (played by Alfred Molina). The two have a beautiful young daughter played by Sheila Rosenthal. The film takes place in the 80's when tension between America and Iran began escalating, and in a way it begins to take a toll on Betty's marriage. Moody gets bullied a lot at the hospital where he works due to his Iranian background and he eventually ends up losing his job. He convinces Betty to come along with him to Iran to visit his family and that is where the tension escalates because Moody's intentions are to stay in Iran. The Iranian culture is very patriarchal so Betty can't return to the States with her daughter and ends up being held against her will in a country that seems to despise her. Moody who seemed to be a loving husband, goes through a drastic change when he arrives at Iran and begins abusing his wife and forcing her to stay against her will. The film then centers on Betty's attempt to find a way out of her current situation. Sally Field and Alfred Molina are talented actors, but I fear the material they had to work with was very weak. These characters are stereotypes of how we perceive Iranians to be and I'm afraid the characters are never given distinct personalities other than portraying the Iranians as bad people. I just found the story a bit too lazy and predictable because it was full of clichés. The film plays out exactly the way you are expecting it to.

Two kinds of people have reviewed the film: one, Americans, who for the fear of being tagged racists voiced their anger over some issues. and two, native iranians, who obviously were hurt for being shown as near monsters. i being a right minded 3rd person saw the movie with an empty mind and found it to be a hardhitting, well crafted movie. i don't know whether the facts are "embellished" as some claim. i don't know if there was any kind of exaggeration or generalisation and i have no means to be sure. but what i saw was an example of brilliant cinema. sally field was flawless. and so were other actors. it hurts me to see the negative response to the movie which i believe is because of the reservations in peoples mind. the screenplay i believe was great too. AND I AS A REASONABLE PERSON COULD BELIEVE IT TO BE TRUE...about that one family, not about the whole country. even the film never showed all iranians as bad. even the husband was not all satanic all the time. i have nothing against them. but i know of occurrence of such incidents. in fact a similar film "khuda ke liye" was made in Pakistan and it was hailed as a great movie. in my country too these things happen in the more conservative societies-exactly the same way. it was a good movie if we look at it objectively is all i wanna say.

This film has received a great deal of flak for its treatment of Dr. Mahamoody, of Iran and indeed, of Islam itself. Yet it must be acknowledged that this is the reality of life in Iran as well as other countries operating under strict Islamic law (c.f. Saudi Arabia): women cannot so much as board a plane or check into a hotel without their husbands' permission, children are in the custody of the father and the family will do as he says.The postmodernist is occasionally willing to admit this, but quick to point out all of the supposed past and present faults of Christian and Occidental civilisation. To this end, the filmmakers (I am not familiar with the book) have done an excellent job avoiding either explicit Christian traditionalism or liberal feminism in depicting Betty's struggle. It could well be read as Christianity versus Islam: notice the large crucifix conspicuously dangling from her neck, and the implication that Betty would never truly consider converting; it is also implied that Betty has raised her daughter a Christian and resists any notion of conversion. On the other hand, it could be read as modernism and feminism versus fundamentalist religion: Betty is shocked that she cannot simply come and go as she pleases, and with her child. (I lean toward the former interpretation, though my reasons for thinking so would take up too much space.)Further, the people who helped Betty escape Iran included Iranians. It is true that these Iranians were depicted as sincere Amerophiles, but let us ask, honestly: what other type of Iranian would help an American escape from her Iranian husband? Moreover, the movie depicts the local Iranian women as genuinely wishing to help Betty adjust: this could well be read as an acknowledgement that the mentality in Iran is quite different than Betty's or any Occidental's.True, the film is centered around Betty and any value judgments would tend to lean toward her side, but in my mind this is a film that cleverly avoids explicit value judgments and tends toward the problem of culture clash. Whatever one thinks about religion or cultural relativism, the fact is that people ARE different, however many similarities one may find, and this has practical consequences. Moreover, the depiction of Moody as swinging from moderate to radical is based on Betty's real memories and should not be discounted. This is one woman's story; the reader is invited to draw his own conclusion.