Just perfect...

Fantastic!

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan is no ordinary director. This fact becomes evident from the very first few frames of his "Climates" (2006), a rather languidly paced, wonderfully minimalist piece of work. We come across an odd looking couple, a young woman, Bahar (Ebru Ceylan) and her visibly older partner (?) Isa (Nuri Bilge Ceylan). It is not clear if they are married or engaged or just living in. They are on a holiday somewhere and Isa is busy photographing some ruins, while Bahar looks on with odd stares. The ambient sounds of buzzing bees and chirping birds add to the mood of the lazy afternoon and the seemingly laid back attitude of the couple on screen. Only just before the title credits appear, there is a long take of Bahar staring right at you (although in the film it's Isa she is looking at). And suddenly, tears start rolling down. Clearly, all is not well.It is soon established that the couple are in a troubled relationship. They are out of love. Bahar seems trapped and suffocated in this relationship. This part is highlighted in a real neat dream sequence of a blurred image of Isa smothering Bahar with sand as she lies on the beach. And later, Isa, who is also aware of the distance between them, rehearses lines to convey that they should probably part ways. These two sequences and one awkward dinner table conversation with a friend quickly impress you. You instantly sit up and take notice. Perhaps you are watching yet another minimalist European masterwork.If only the same sentiment stayed on after the first 50 odd minutes, after which it appears that Ceylan probably exhausted the greatest written scenes in his visibly unaccomplished script, which simply isn't potent enough in the first place. The plot, if any, merely delves on Bahar and Isa's break-up and Isa's attempt to reconcile. That's all you can really write about it. The deficient script wouldn't matter much, if all of the handful of characters that appear on screen make up for the lack of substantial meat in the writing. But the focus is mostly only on Isa, while the other players, although introduced, appear in some important scenes, but aren't much looked into. We only know them superficially.For example, sometime later, we are introduced to Serap (Nazan Kirilmis), apparently an ex of Isa. Isa runs into Serap, old romance/lust rekindles, and he invites himself into her home, in spite of the fact that she is now carrying on with a friend of his! Serap and Isa stare at each other awkwardly for a long while and exchange small talk about their respective relationships. Serap smokes her cigarettes with elan, and in the moments of silence we can actually hear the sound of smoke being drawn in every puff till the cigarette burns out. Just Lovely! But suddenly something happens that makes you wonder what kind of man Isa really is!This is further corroborated in a sequence in the snow-clad eastern Turkey, to where Isa travels to find his lost love, Bahar, in an attempt to win her back! How fickle can one get? He meets a friendly cabbie, who doesn't ask much except to be sent a photograph he takes of him against a snowy landscape. Isa agrees and the cabbie writes down his address on a piece of paper. But later, very nonchalantly, he throws the piece of paper in an ash tray in a coffee shop! One wonders if the only character that carries so much weight in the script should come across as so unlikeable that you would hardly even care about him much."Climates" had potential to completely succeed only in scenes like these that highlight some behavioral traits of Ceylan's characters, since plot-wise he didn't have much to go on. More talent, though, is invested in capturing breathtakingly beautiful landscapes across Turkey in some of the finest cinematography this reviewer had the pleasure of coming across. Add to that, some of the greatest sound design, capturing ambient sounds that you simply fall in love with, and wonderfully natural acting that you can't forget for a while.The title, apart from the physical change of seasons we see on the screen, also alludes to the ups and downs in human relationships. But more so, it is symbolic of the fickleness of a human being, his shifting inclinations that change with time. "Climates" shows us in its subtle, simple narrative, how a man can break up, stray and then attempt to make up again! "Climates", thus succeeds on a considerable level, as a romantic mood piece. Only it ends up being a little too simple and a tad hollow for a film trying to bring out the complicated functioning of the human mind.There certainly is sheer grace in the mechanics of "Climates", and Ceylan proves that he has the skill for the aesthetics. Only one wishes there was more heart in it too.Score: 8/10

Nuri Bilge Ceylan's enigmatically titled film, 'Climates', is quiet, stark, intimate and in places, quite beautifully shot. The story of the breakdown of a relationship, it depicts lives characterised by selfishness, emotional reticence and harshly physical sexual encounters. In spite of these strengths, the film also has weaknesses: the central character, played by the director himself, seems utterly undeserving of our sympathy (beyond the fact of his inner loneliness); and it's always hard to make a film about emotional emptiness without the film itself feeling, in places, slow and empty. This is particularly true of the film's opening, which makes no concessions to the fact that the audience doesn't yet know the characters well enough to be sufficiently interested in the painful detail of their lives. But the end, it has grown to present a certain emotional power of its own. It's always rewarding to see something other than a Hollywood version of the nature of human interaction; but at times, the film wanders, lost like its protagonists.

If you want to enjoy some of the splendid natural and man-made beauty of Turkey, "Climates" will satisfy you and maybe even have you heading for a travel agent. If you love studying faces, guessing at thoughts and watching prolonged takes on a modest range of emotions, settle back and enjoy "Climates". If you love to love or hate self-centred and non-communicative males on the one hand (and Isa's a manipulative cad though, to give him his due, he doesn't seem to know what the hell he wants from women) and neglected, communication-starved females on the other, you've hit paydirt with this one. With its minimalist plot, you have a great deal of time to study relationships and facets of human nature. But it just wasn't my cup of tea. I intended to switch it off half a dozen times, but persevered in the hope someone would express themselves intelligibly to someone else, instead of shadow boxing. Even a scene of violent love-making (this is a euphemism by the way) left me annoyed - it was like silent consensual rape. The one occasion I felt uplifted was when Bahar (Isa's main prey) recounted a dream. She became animated and alive, though Isa got nothing of the beauty of spirit she displayed (as he was surely scripted not to). Altogether a bleak portrait of the search for non-loneliness.

After reading the score in IMDb I decided to see the movie. The story between Ceylan his wife and the "usual" third girl is dragged for almost two hours without a real path. I have to say the movie is definitely BORING, the screenplay is weak. Too much product placement for a "non" commercial movie. Actors (although non pro) are not acting at all...not worth the time. Ceylan you are not Antonioni, at least not yet. There is a long way to go, and you should ask yourself if you want to be a director, a producer, an actor, or just make money or just have fun. After you've found your true talent we are going to enjoy the product of your work, for the time been I won't watch another movie with the same cast.