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Plot Summary
Midnight's Children is an epic film from Oscar-nominated director Deepa Mehta, based on the Booker Prize winning novel by Salman Rushdie. At the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, as India proclaims independence from Great Britain, two newborn babies are switched by a nurse in a Bombay hospital. Saleem Sinai, the illegitimate son of a poor woman, and Shiva, the offspring of a wealthy couple, are fated to live the destiny meant for each other. Their lives become mysteriously intertwined and are inextricably linked to India's whirlwind journey of triumphs and disasters. Hopeful, comic and magical – the film conjures images and characters as rich and unforgettable as India herself.
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Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
42%- Reviews Counted: 53
- Fresh: 22
- Rotten: 31
- Average Rating: 5.6/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Rotten: A movie that, if never exactly dull, feels drained of the mythic juice that powers the book, which won the Booker Prize in 1981.
Rotten: The film is beautifully shot, with vivid production design. But because of the tale's lack of cohesion, it doesn't carry enough emotional heft.
Fresh: The cinematography is memorably vibrant, and the performances are solid, even if they pass by too swiftly. Most of all, of course, the subject matter remains fascinating.
Fresh: In its steady great-books way, the film is often truthful and moving.
Customer Reviews
Nothing really happens
I was not really moved by anything that happened in this film. Maybe it was told in such an Indian way that I didn't get it. People were hurt, people loved, there was war and yet through the whole thing I felt like "meh" and to put it in perspective moving AT&T commercials can bring a tear to my eye. The cinematography was beautiful though.
So. Painful. For the wrong reasons.
did you love Monsoon Wedding? so did I. did you love Slumdog Millionaire? so did I. but Midnight's Children bored the living daylights out of me. so confused. so soap-opera-ish in tone and texture. precious, sanctimonious. can't really blame the actors, they had such cartoonish screenplay to work with. stilted and pompous writing and performances. I wanted to care and find something or someone I could root for, but the movie is oddly gutted, full of caricatures instead of characters, none of it emotionally compelling or believable. I felt like I was watching an eleven year old's conception of what an 'epic' would be. torturous, for an adult.
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