The Stoning of Soraya M.

"The Stoning of Soraya M." is a relentlessly grim and powerful movie with terrific acting....a sustained, horrific ending that's not for the squeamish.....Cruel reality is behind powerful story....The film's terrible outcome is telegraphed early on and feels relentlessly oppressive, making it hard at times to sit through.....Marno offers a powerful performance as the wife who maintains her dignity and grace.... ... Full Review

Although the film adaptation powerfully condemns the act, director Cyrus Nowrasteh extends the climactic scene to lengthy and brutal dimensions.....The stoning scene is painfully, pointlessly drawn out for more than 15 minutes..... ... Full Review

The Stoning of Soraya M is ugly and upsetting viewing..... ... Full Review

A great cause doesn't necessarily make a great film....fighting for a great cause, the abolition of public torture in the Muslim world, necessarily makes for a great film..... ... Full Review

The movie, which also stars Shohreh Aghdashloo ( House of Sand and Fog ) as Soraya's increasingly desperate aunt and Jim Caviezel as a French journalist, is so heavy-handed and simplistic....The Stoning of Soraya M. is a slow, inexorable slog to the titular event --.... ... Full Review

The movie, which also stars Shohreh Aghdashloo ( House of Sand and Fog ) as Soraya's increasingly desperate aunt and Jim Caviezel as a French journalist, is so heavy-handed and simplistic....The Stoning of Soraya M. is a slow, inexorable slog to the titular event --.... ... Full Review

The film points out the relentless lack of options for women....Grim and ostentatious at the same time, the movie's banal frame-the noble reporter, the terrible locals-cannot contain the sublime Aghdashloo..... ... Full Review

There is no mistaking the tragedy in this flinty, inflammatory and significant film, an adaptation of the 1994 book by Iranian-French journalist Freidoune Sahebjam (portrayed, in narrative bookends, by a rather mussed-looking James Caviezel).....The movie marches to that same, sad rhythm of unalterable horror, illuminated by Joel Ransom's brutal and beautiful cinematography..... ... Full Review

the movie's heavy-handed style harks back to the kind of 1950s Hollywood quasi-biblical parables starring Victor Mature and Jean Simmons.... ... Full Review

Director Cyrus Nowrasteh (who co-wrote with Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh) admirably does not whitewash the most intense scenes....Navid Negahban is particularly good as the pathetic husband who sets events in motion with his own adultery..... ... Full Review