I'm told that Üç maymun (Three Monkeys) is Turkey's official submission for consideration of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. I really have no idea how many films with this level of production are made in Turkey each year. And now that I think about it, I can't think of a single movie I have ever seen that has come out of Turkey. The only movie I can think of that I've seen that is even set substantially in Turkey is Midnight Express, and I believe that was an American produced film that wasn't especially fair in portraying the full Turkish culture for Americans.
However there's actually not too much about Three Monkeys that sets it in any particular location. At least there was nothing culturally unusual or alien to me. I'm not saying that there SHOULD be, just an observation from someone who doesn't know too much about Turkey and hasn't seen too much of their artistic exports.
What we have here is a film that is well executed in many ways, nice pacing, framing, cinematography, sound, and superb acting. And the dialogue and story are realistic and easy to follow. The film does well with the "show don't tell" rule of story telling. We pick up a lot of things about the feelings of the characters and specific events and background elements without anyone speaking about them explicitly. YET, despite all of this I found the movie to be sorely lacking.
Even if everything that a movie is trying to do is done well, if what it's trying to do has no originality or holds no interest then what is the point? This is a tragic drama. People in conflict, anguish, humorless. All of the characters make foolish decisions as people often do. But when we don't see much of the characters apart from their foolish decisions or the ill consequences on them due to the foolish decisions of others, no scenes of them really enjoying themselves or with any real hope or interesting personality traits, then the tragedy is not too affecting. The one key element that the movie is suggesting has played a key role in their backgrounds and how they got to where they are now is the apparent loss of another son in family many years ago. I did find quite a bit of skill and restraint in the way this is revealed. It's virtually never mentioned by any of the characters. The movie lets you as the viewer piece together the history of what happened and how much it has affected everyone through very simple images. But I do not feel as though this element adds enough to make this story particularly worth watching. The insight is too miniscule.
One other interesting aspect of this film that I recall is that there is absolutely no non-diegetic music (from what I remember, if there was it must have been quite subtle). The only music in the film is the ringtone from the mother's cell phone which has some extremely sad lyrics about love turning into hate and destruction. The fact that this is the only music ever heard makes the song even more blunt. And it also makes the use of sound in the film even more apparent. Sound stands out in this movie. With your attention brought to the sounds around you more than you would normally notice it, normal things can sound quite strange and startling. There is a tense scene (well pretty much all of them are tense actually) where a man who is rather upset stands up and walks off screen. We hear a very strange noise, and then when the picture cuts back to him we see he is standing in front of an electric fan. The film also makes excessive use of sound bridges where the sounds of the next scene start to play quite long before the image cuts over as well. Sometimes the sound is that of the ringtone so that it sounds at first like non-diegetic music until we realize what is happening. These uses of sound and few realistic indications of the dead son still affecting the lives of the main characters are the moments where the film starts to extend into the surreal but never in a way that really seems unrealistic than our own perceptions of things.
I would certainly be willing to watch something else by these same filmmakers in the future if someone were to tell me that their next project was going to feature a little more humor. As it is, as the first Turkish film production I have seen my impression of the country is that it's a place pretty much devoid of life and hope. Of course I know that isn't true. And I realize the filmmakers are also hinting that there was once some joy before the death of the son in this family, but I'd rather take my tragedy with a little more profundity. (At least this movie didn't have any horribly pretentious voice-overs like that other mavens movie I reviewed not too long ago, Summer Palace).
Some better straight up tragic dramas that I prefer, that I think you may like if you like this movie: 21 Grams, House of Sand and Fog, In the Bedroom
Rating: 5/10