Aristides-2 I suppose I shouldn't vote on this movie because I didn't get to see much of it because of two major problems which impeded access:: 1. The film-to-DVD transfer was third rate. The transfer 'muddied' the images shown making this viewer think he was walking into quicksand. 2. The subtitles were the worst transcriptions I've ever seen. As some of you know there are websites, foreign to the West, that are trying to enter a broader market and what they do is "translate" their comments into English, using some primitive app that must appear to them idiomatic......Wrong!; the results are laughable. 2a. Spellcheck anyone? The people who did the subtitles for this movie, as wretched as the the titles were, failed to use Spellcheck to edit their copy. So in addition to baffling, ridiculous translations, also incorrectly spell quite a few words. These two and half negatives allow me to believe that the producers, with something of interest to sell, had zero control of post-production DVD copying. Thumbs down, major league level.

consult2 This was a melodramatic and overly-romanticized look at traditions; both benign (the hamam itself) to the malignant (mutilating a child's' genitals). Other than the presentation of these traditions, we are left with little.The mood presented was consistent, but the characterizations were predictable..and frankly so was the story line.Perhaps the characters would have been more believable had they developed them better and provided a longer history for each--this would have given more plausible reasons for the actions and choices of the characters.There are many more films more worthy of watching.

otsoko1 The first 90% of this movie is an interesting and even thoughtful examination of an Italian yuppie who finds himself in a typical neighbourhood in Istanbul, and has to re-examine his life and the choices he's made.Unfortunately, this movie is the most egregious example of the now-trite 'surprise tragic ending' that some straight filmmakers seem to feel obliged to do whenever they have a gay character. It comes out of nowhere. All of the sudden, the last few minutes of the film are about the guy's wife, who nonetheless learns a valuable After-school Special style lesson about life. Yoiks.

richard-276 I like a movie that has a distinct climax, yet is easy to overlook or perhaps miss altogether. The climax of Hamam is when Francesco hands his wife the letters from his aunt and asks that she send them back when she's finished reading them. It is a seemingly small, inconsequential gesture -- but an act of conviction that describes a person's inner workings far more than could ever be achieved with an abundance of words. It is truly a beautiful moment -- one of many -- and a reason this is a film worth viewing.