First, let me list what I liked about this film. The setting is beautiful. Stark natural beauty of mountainous Eastern Turkey is breathtaking. Cinematography is also top notch. Local costumes, especially of the women are colorful, authentic and gorgeous. The subject matter, a city-bred grade school teacher is assigned to a remote mountain village where he assumes the self assigned task of rehabilitating a local spastic young man, has the potential of being developed into a powerful story. However, that is where my disappointment starts. The film blows the chance of being a masterpiece. The story development is choppy and full of unlikely events. At several points, I found myself asking 'but, why?' or 'how come?' and finding no explanation. The 'miracle' that is revealed at the end of the movie is probably the one plot element that is least believable. When the villagers wonder how the 'miracle' came about, the main character's explanation, 'I fell in love with my wife', just does not cut it. I admire the young Turkish director, Mahsun Kirmizigul, due to his productivity and improvement in his directing skills he has mustered over the years. Never the less, I believe he still has quite a distance to cover in order to perfect his artistry in story telling.
Review of The Miracle
