While the book reads as tragedy, the film feels like melodrama, and really hasn't the guts for Connolly's natural spirit and warmth, or Kingsley's beautiful canniness. They both feel completely throttled, done in by the film's over-calculated heaviness.

... it recaptured my attention with the pitch-perfect performances of both Ben Kingsley and Shohreh Aghdashloo.

Serious and thoughtful; for mature teens+.

[The film] is imbued with an almost poetic beauty, probably thanks to the work of Deakins (cinematography) and Horner (score)...[and another] great thing about [it] is the fact that the audience understands the positions of both Kathy and Behrani.