Critics reviews

A profound and profoundly moving mediation on love and betrayal.

Reygadas doesn't color the story with interpretation but, rather, permeates it with a religious sense of mystery akin to what his characters must be feeling. The results are hypnotic and altogether gorgeous, and its underlying mysteries (not least that of faith itself) stay with you for long after you watch it.

At bottom, Silent Light is less about faith than matters of the heart, and in Reygadas' hands, the ache is bone-deep.

There’s a sense, conveyed through the initial reeling movement and the subsequent creeping zoom, that the camera is selecting this particular bucolic scene from a vast galaxy of potential subjects. From infinite possibilities filmmaker Carlos Reygadas is making a choice—and the burden of one’s duty to make choices will become central to the film’s drama.

Yes, this film does require patience from the viewer, but this patience will eventually pay off—with interest.