A man of faith succumbs to a temptation he cannot resist in this drama written and directed by Carlos Reygadas. Johan (Cornelio Wall Fehr) and Esther (Miriam Toews) have been married for years, and live with their children in a Mennonite community Mexico. While Johan and Esther are both taciturn by nature, a moral dilemma is tearing Johan apart -- he's been having an affair with another woman in their circle, Marianne (Maria Pankratz), and feels he may be falling in love with her. While the tenants of his faith strictly forbid adultery, his need to be with Marianne seems stronger than the dictates of his moral compass, and while he's confessed his sins to Esther and his close friend Zacarias (Jacobo Klassen), subjecting himself to the shame of truth hasn't buffered his desires. Even worse, after Johan his father about his lust for Marianne, he's told that he may have fallen under the sway of Satan. Luz Silenciosa (aka Silent Light) received its world premiere at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review by All Movie Guide
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Carlos Reygadas' Silent Light (2007) is an absorbing study of faith and belief, challenged and stretched almost to the breaking point by the human relations it depicts. Set in a Mennonite community in Mexico, it tells a story of infidelity and its consequences in intimate detail, with muted colors, all carefully shaded. The slow, gradual transition of shadows across Reygadas' widescreen (2.35:1) image seems to reflect the pace of life among his subjects, a people whose devotion to and belief in God, if one is to absorb the events depicted, can allow them to transcend even the most personal betrayal and (seemingly) the most dire of consequences that stem from it. From the opening shot, a six-minute-plus transition from night into day across the sky, Reygadas seems prepared to take his time telling his story, and he has the cast to do it with, led by
Cornelio Wall Fehr and
Miriam Toews as a husband and wife whose marriage is jeopardized by his faithlessness. Their performances, and their interactions with the rest of the cast, are so note-perfect that you forget it's a scripted film you're watching, and almost find yourself feeling guilty for intruding upon a family's daily life. This is verisimilitude on an uncanny level, and coupled with the director's unforced storytelling, yields a hypnotic result for the viewer. You never lose sight of the struggle that these characters are engaged in to sustain their faith, and it is this dramatic component that drives the story forward, maintaining interest across 144 minutes to a visually startling, spiritually rewarding denouement that carries us back to a point recalling that glorious opening. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide