Üç Maymun (Three Monkeys)

All the fantastic elements are present in this movie: great images, great compositions, great cinematography, great slow pace, great long takes, amazing opening scene, great sounds, great performances, great director, and a story that’s told in an interesting way as you cannot see the acts, only the consequences. But surprisingly I did not enjoyed the movie as I felt like an observer of successions of beautiful images that didn’t provoke feelings or emotions in me, and after a while really becomes tedious.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan decided this time to tell a clear story and that perhaps was the main reason why I didn’t enjoyed the movie. Even when you do not see how things happen you easily follow the narrative and understand absolutely everything that happens, which is not common in his movies and I hope he does it only this time.

The story is very mundane as tells about politician Servet that one night does a hit-and-run killing a man. As it was elections time he asks Eyup, his driver, to take the blame and spend time in jail as when he gets out, he’ll be compensated with a large sum of money and his monthly salary will be paid in full to his wife and son. When the man is in jail, Hacer his wife starts to have an affair with Servet and from that moment everything goes sour and ends in tragedy.

Most of what I read mentions that the story is about the lack of communication among the three-member family. I totally disagree and tend to believe that probably perceptions come from the lack of dialogue and the silences; but for me is a simple story of a woman that passionately falls for his husband boss. Which honestly is not that interesting as is a story well traveled by many filmmakers and wasn’t hard to predict what will come next.

If you browse the blog you will find the honors and accolades that this movie has been collecting since was premiered in competition at 2008 Cannes where Bilge Ceylan won the Best Director Award. This time is hard for me to understand the award, as one of the most crucial elements of a good director are his storytelling skills to make a mundane story really outstanding and in my opinion Bilge Ceylan in this movie wasn’t able to show his amazing storytelling skills.

I waited so long to be able to see this movie and yes, I had huge expectations; unfortunately this time the film was not able to impress me as I really missed a better story. I cannot recommend this movie, unless you are a huge fan of Nuri Bilge Ceylan and have to see the movie, but I imagine that you will be as disappointed as me.

Enjoy.