Darshan, the EmbraceMovie Reviews

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Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 75
    Seattle Post-Intelligencer | Bill White

    Movies about gurus generally fail to capture the charisma of their subjects. French director Jan Kounen's documentary on Amma, India's hugging saint, who allegedly has given restorative embraces to more than 45 million supplicants, is no exception. Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Tribune | Michael Wilmington

    Jan Kounen, the maker of Darshan, is a French director with flashy credentials, including music videos, commercials, horror shorts, violent gangster movies ("Dobermann") and offbeat westerns ("Blueberry"). Read full review

  • 70
    Variety | Lisa Nesselson

    Docu's pace will be a little too meditative for many, but the rigorous, sinewy lensing will have Hypnotic power on those so inclined. Read full review

  • 60
    The New York Times |

    Filling our heads with pretty pictures and not much else, Darshan: The Embrace is likely to leave audiences enchanted but unenlightened. Read full review

  • 50
    Boston Globe | Wesley Morris

    According to several sojourners who speak in the film, Amma is the embodiment of love. And according to her website, it's her religion, too. Read full review

  • 50
    San Francisco Chronicle | John McMurtrie

    A loving if fawning documentary. Read full review

  • 50
    L.A. Weekly |

    Unless you're already a true believer, Amma comes across in Darshan as a perfect angel, a frustrating enigma and a rather dull cinematic subject. Read full review

  • 50
    New York Post | V.A. Musetto

    When it comes to magnetism, the Rolling Stones have nothing on Amma, the Indian mahatma ("spiritual guide") chronicled in Jan Kounen's handsomely photographed but one-sided documentary. Read full review

  • 50
    Los Angeles Times | John Anderson

    While Amma's teachings of love, inner peace and Karma, or action, resonate in the film -- obviously, Amma is a woman called to God -- her background remains pretty much a mystery. Less National Geographic and more personal history would have added a dimension to "Darshan." Read full review

  • 40
    Village Voice | Ben Kenigsberg

    Werner Herzog's "Wheel of Time" was, in a sense, the Buddhist equivalent of this film, as well as a more illuminating look at the power and transience of ritual. Read full review

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