It is a mess, cramming in every inflammatory ethnic item on this Canadian-Armenian director's agenda. Egoyan has dedicated so much time and feeling to the historical wounds of his race that the emotion is festering.

| Dec 14, 2017

Because of Egoyan's astute, cool intellectual powers and directorial finesse, the film cannot be quickly dismissed, especially if you're an Egoyan disciple. You do become concerned about the characters . . and the issues. If only you could feel them.

| Mar 17, 2017

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 27, 2003

There's no doubting that this is a highly ambitious and personal project for Egoyan, but it's also one that, next to his best work, feels clumsy and convoluted.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 19, 2003

Egoyan uses the inherent falseness of movies ... to achieve a truth his own.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 27, 2002

In a strange way, Egoyan has done too much. He's worked too hard on this movie.

| Nov 27, 2002

It's a deeply serious movie that cares passionately about its subject, but too often becomes ponderous in its teaching of history, or lost in the intricate connections and multiple timelines of its story.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 27, 2002

Given the convoluted approach -- and tongue-tied delivery -- we're left to conclude that Egoyan's emotions got the better of him this time.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Nov 27, 2002

Has the obsessiveness and audacity of a film that had to be made or its filmmaker would have combusted.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 27, 2002

Only the most patient, sensitive and sensible of viewers will cut through the film's affectations and indulgences to come to the point.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 27, 2002

Part impassioned history lesson, part reflection on the way entertainment distorts history, part extension of [Egoyan's] previous explorations of how desire and need distort our sense of self.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 27, 2002

Egoyan's work often elegantly considers various levels of reality and uses shifting points of view, but here he has constructed a film so labyrinthine that it defeats his larger purpose.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 27, 2002

Before long, you get Egoyan's big idea -- and it's hardly a good one. He wants to turn the movie screen into a blackboard.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 27, 2002

You can quibble with excess characters and storylines, but the cumulative effect is strong and emotionally accurate.

| Original Score: B | Nov 26, 2002

In the end, Ararat has enough artistry and intelligence -- and enough commitment from Egoyan, producer Robert Lantos and company -- to justify more than a higher-than-mixed rating.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 26, 2002

Has its moments -- and almost as many subplots.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 15, 2002

A pertinent powerfully intelligent account of the morality of making history.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 15, 2002

Hardly makes the kind of points Egoyan wanted to make, nor does it exist as the kind of monument he wanted to build, to victims whose voices have never gained the ears of the world.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 15, 2002

The metaphors are provocative, but too often, the viewer is left puzzled by the mechanics of the delivery.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 15, 2002

The Armenian genocide deserves a more engaged and honest treatment.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 15, 2002