86% Tabu

All Critics (43) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (37) | Rotten (6)

It almost seems a parody of willfully obscure art-house fare. Yet it has an undertow that sucks you in as often as it strands you back on shore.

A kind of jigsaw puzzle, spiced up with references to "White Mischief," "Out of Africa" and "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," that will frustrate some audiences and fascinate others.

The audience is left to imagine much of the story, though it is clear it involves love, betrayal, guilt, regret and a recurring crocodile.

Portuguese director Miguel Gomes' latest film moves through different styles and eras, and proves that shooting in black and white is as versatile as it ever was.

Few films are this smart about subtly couching their allegorical aspirations within more straightforward narratives; fewer still are able to do so with such energetically inventive virtuoso style.

If you have the patience to watch this film develop and unfold, like some bizarre night-blooming orchid, what you'll see is not just the last movie released in 2012, but possibly the most original of them all.

The latter part of the film recalls 1987's "White Mischief," but in Gomes's hands, the story becomes much more...the past and the present continually flow into one another...

The black-and-white cinematography and silent-film feel are haunting and nostalgic, and Aurora's story encapsulates a broader, bittersweet truth about the perils of tinted memory.

For a decades-spanning, country-hopping romance on a low budget, "Tabu" looks great...it intentionally evokes in aesthetics, settings and/or plot elements such cinematic classics as "Casablanca," "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946) and more.

The influences of Murnau's 1931 black-and-white Tabu are more thematic than stylistic in this uncategorizable new film

If in the first half Gomes dares the audience to be bored, the second half is a cinephile's payoff.

Patient viewers will find some rewards with a quirky and charming film that develops a wealth of emotional depth.

A dreadfully slow screenplay in the second half undercuts the interesting handling of black and white exposition.

Churlish though it sounds, you'll want to arrive for this b&w Portuguese drama about 45 minutes late.

Droll, mysterious, enchanting, and altogether singular.

After a point, you start to forget what actual boundary-pushing cinema looks like. Well, it looks like this.

Sophisticated, lyrical and quietly moving. Patient and intelligent audience members will be the most rewarded.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tabu_2012/

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