Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes

Chicken With Plums

Play trailer Poster for Chicken With Plums PG-13 2012 1h 31m Comedy Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
74% Tomatometer 70 Reviews 71% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
When his beloved violin is broken, famed musician Nasser Ali Khan (Mathieu Amalric) loses the will to live. Unable to find a replacement for the instrument, Nasser decides to retreat to his bed and await death. As he waits, Nasser plunges deep into reverie and experiences dreams both joyous and melancholic. He speaks with Azrael (Édouard Baer), the Angel of Death, who reveals the future of Nasser's children. As pieces of a puzzle fall together, the poignant secret of Nasser's life emerges.
Watch on Fandango at Home Stream Now

Where to Watch

Chicken With Plums

Chicken With Plums

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Whimsical and melancholy, Chicken with Plums is visually striking and dreamily compelling despite its occasional narrative missteps.

Read Critics Reviews

Critics Reviews

View More
Violet Lucca Film Comment Magazine 06/28/2013
These moments give flavor, but fail to cohere into any particular taste. Go to Full Review
Eric Kohn IndieWire 04/14/2013
B+
While visually scrumptious, the movie struggles to reach a greater profundity that it never quite obtains, but its childlike emulation of a grand tragedy is indelibly precious. Go to Full Review
Joe Williams St. Louis Post-Dispatch 10/18/2012
3.5/4
Resurrects the spirit of Middle Eastern fables, albeit with a French twist. Go to Full Review
Marya E. Gates Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) 02/12/2024
Has that larger-than-life Technicolor feel to it. Go to Full Review
Sergio Benítez Espinof 04/23/2020
The limitless resources of the seventh art end up playing in favor of making the production a better embodiment of the story than we could find in its original vehicle. [Full Review in Spanish] Go to Full Review
Mattie Lucas From the Front Row 08/06/2019
2/4
It's undeniably beautiful, but it also feels awfully familiar, with the lighthearted mix of comedy and melancholy veering closer to Jeunet's territory than Satrapri's singular wit. Go to Full Review
Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View More
Georgan G 08/06/2023 A fairy tale of love & loss, happiness & grief. The visuals added to the pleasure of the film. Very unique & lovely. Needs voice-over for English speakers to increase their understanding. See more 01/09/2017 made me cry the fist time I saw it... I always get lost in the beautiful images and the peculiar way of tellings such a melancolic story See more 03/03/2016 A beautiful fairytale in the French tradition, but with some magically realistic elements that reminded me of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's AMELIE or the Latin American filmmakers of the 90s. Sorry to see that this film didn't get as wide a US release as those films. Beautifully sculpted and circular in structure, the timeless look of this period piece will hopefully attract more of an audience, through those who find interest in Marjane Satrapi's work may be the first to seek it out. See more 03/03/2015 From the creators of PERSEPOLIS comes the tale of a man who loses all hope and decides to die after his favorite violin is destroyed. That might sound odd, but of course it is a gross oversimplification of what goes on in CHICKEN WITH PLUMS. The central character, Nasser Ali (Matthieu Amalric), does indeed lose his precious violin, but its significance is revealed is multiple flashback sequences which give him background, motivation and depth. I don't really want to spoil anything, so I'll just say that the end result is rather poetic and touching. From a visual standpoint, it continues from the same place that PERSEPOLIS came from, while imbuing it with lots of color and fantastic elements. The film feels like a fairy tale at times, with a sense of whimsy and free-flowing creativity that flies in the face of rather depressing subject matter. Matthieu Amalric does a standup job as Nasser Ali, bringing a certain world-weariness to his character as well as youthful optimism in the flashback scenes. Ultimately, by the end of the film you understand why Nasser has chosen to just give up (although I don't condone suicide). Thematically, I think the film works on a couple of levels. First, there is the surface story which is about losing hope and one's raison d'etre. However, with a character named "Iran," I also think that there is a subtle political allegory as well. The film takes place in the 1950's and references are made visually and through dialogue to indicate that Marjane Satrapi is making commentary on this particular period of Iranian history. She also takes some potshots at America that I thought were slightly uncalled for, although no less funny in the context of the film. My only real issues with the film are that the supporting characters are mostly sidelined and/or underwritten, and the narrative structure lends itself to being a little episodic at times. That being said, though, I was quite pleased with the end result and emotionally invested the whole way. Overall, CHICKEN WITH PLUMS is a delightful cinematic confection from Marjane Satrapi about her native Iran. The subject matter is kind of depressing, but plenty of visual sugar (along with some emotional heft) helps the medicine go down smoothly. See more 02/08/2015 More depressing than Persepolis, but still carrying Satrapi's sarcastic wit and her visual talent, "Chicken With Plums" is a melancholic but stunning journey into a fantasy land of whimsy and woe. See more 01/05/2015 in this movie, nothing happens but everything happens. A creative meditation on a man's life! See more Read all reviews
Chicken With Plums

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW
Look at Me 88% 69% Look at Me Watchlist Everybody's Fine 47% 53% Everybody's Fine Watchlist The Art of Getting By 20% 47% The Art of Getting By Watchlist The Guilt Trip 35% 39% The Guilt Trip Watchlist The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 77% 78% The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis When his beloved violin is broken, famed musician Nasser Ali Khan (Mathieu Amalric) loses the will to live. Unable to find a replacement for the instrument, Nasser decides to retreat to his bed and await death. As he waits, Nasser plunges deep into reverie and experiences dreams both joyous and melancholic. He speaks with Azrael (Édouard Baer), the Angel of Death, who reveals the future of Nasser's children. As pieces of a puzzle fall together, the poignant secret of Nasser's life emerges.
Director
Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud
Producer
Hengameh Panahi
Screenwriter
Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud
Distributor
Sony Pictures Classics
Production Co
Canal+
Rating
PG-13 (Some Drug Content|Smoking|Sensuality|Violent Images)
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Original Language
French (France)
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 17, 2012, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Feb 4, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA)
$253.7K
Runtime
1h 31m
Most Popular at Home Now