I’m not very interested in the controversy surrounding this movie that’s currently taking place, but I think it’s an interesting point of discussion. While this is a movie about a girl who slowly learns to overcome the pressures of culture to find her own individuality, the way it plays out is far from straightforward and is quite different from what you might expect.

I wish the movie had spent a bit more time with her family. We get so few scenes with her mother that her change of heart near the end comes very suddenly. Given that I perceived the family to be the emotional core of the story (and her actions are in big part a rebellion against her father), it was odd that the interactions we saw were so brief. I could be wrong about my perceptions, though.