Maya

2018

1h 47m

Drama

List

73%

26 Reviews

Tomatometer

A man working as a war reporter is taken hostage in Syria before heading to India after his captivity.

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Audience Member

Honestly, one of the worst movies I have ever seen. There has to be something of a fix to give a 72% rating because it really is a bad movie in every way. It's more or less about nothing and even in that it fails as just filming, cinematography and basic storytelling are non-existent. If I was forced to describe what it was about, I would say it's about a French guy taking advantage of an Indian girl, but devoid of any romance or real story, not that that would justify. By the picture advertising the movie and especially it's very disingenuous name, it seems clear it is being presented as a romance, but that it definitely is not. Awful, awful movie, the very definition of a waste of two hours

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

jose m

The film is a mishmash of lost opportunities with the insightful observation of little details about life in Goa, but overall it is not very satisfying and at times it is a bit problematic. First of all the title of the film is not really reflective of what we see, although Maya is an important presence in the film she isn't the driving force of the indisputably main character, Gabriel the war correspondent, whose trials and tribulations we follow from the point he comes back to France as a hero and until the end of the film when he seems to have reached an understanding of what he wants to do with his life. Gabriel (which perhaps could have been a better title for the film given how many films named Maya are already out there) has been traumatized during his coverage of the Syrian crisis, in returning to France he decides to make a clean break and go to India, to Goa most specifically, where he grew up, in order to clean his head. At this point one major niggle develops because from the film from then on is mostly in English but English isn't the mother tongue of any of the characters, so the dialogue becomes a distraction, so the spaces during which there is no dialogue at all become the most interesting of the film, which depicts lavishly many landmarks without making us the concession to name them. Gabriel clearly is at ease in this environment, which is conveyed cleverly by him behaving like a local by the places where he eats, by how he moves around and how he relates to the locals. Amongst all this soulsearching in the India of his youth, including a visit to his estranged mother, Maya stands there in the periphery, always happy to hang around with this chap that could be his father since he is around double her age, something that I didn't find comfortable. The brief relationship seems to be of little consequence for him while she's impacted as one would expect from a young woman that is exploring perhaps what she thinks is her first serious relationship. Given that Gabriel is somehow entrusted with her by her own father, an old family friend, the relationship felt exploitative and irresponsible for no good reason, and on this age even less credible. The film isn't a complete waste of time but has too many flaws to transcend the mundanity it tries to portray.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Saw this at tiff. Could have been two great movies. His return to Paris and his career. Really interesting friends, family, partners. Solid drama and compelling story. Or the world he returns to no longer exists because he is not the same person who left. Goes home to a place he left long ago. etc. Instead a rambling tale or inconsistent depth.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

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Mia Hansen-Løve

Director

Suzan Anbeh

Sigrid

Roman Kolinka

Gabriel

Judith Chemla

Naomi

Alex Descas

Frédéric

Aarshi Banerjee

Maya

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Guy Lodge

Variety

This is the first stumble in Hansen-Løve's hitherto impressive filmography - the kind of directorial misstep that at least makes it clear how deft her footwork usually is.

Mar 8, 2019

Full Review

Tim Grierson

Screen International

Maya features no grand catharsis, no moment of profound emotional revelation, but this tentative love story is quite content to embed itself with a taciturn young man who returns home, unsure if home is a concept he can ever again embrace.

Nov 6, 2018

Full Review

Tomris Laffly

RogerEbert.com

This tenderly shot film with an intriguing soundtrack claims a worthy spot in [Hansen-Løve's] catalog.

Sep 13, 2018

Full Review

Vadim Rizov

Filmmaker Magazine

In any case, I’m happy, on first pass, to be an outlier on a movie I found exciting and surprising...

Jan 5, 2023

Full Review

Ignacio Navarro

El antepenúltimo mohicano

Only the talent of a director like [Mia] Hansen-Løve allows all this construction to seem so loose and spontaneous. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 4/5

Mar 25, 2019

Full Review

John Tones

Espinof

It's calm atmosphere flourish and evolve without much use for words. [Full Review in Spanish]

Rated: 3.5/5

Mar 22, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

A man working as a war reporter is taken hostage in Syria before heading to India after his captivity.

Director: Mia Hansen-Løve
Producer: Déborah Benattar
Screenwriter: Mia Hansen-Løve
Production Co: Les Films Pelléas
Genre: Drama
Original Language: French (France)
Runtime: 1h 47m

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