Ritual
A disillusioned filmmaker has an encounter with a young woman who has a ritual of repeating "Tomorrow is my birthday" everyday. He tries to communicate with her through his video camera.
Critics Sentiment
Ayako Fujitani's emotionally overwhelming performance draws the filmmaker in
Anno offers explanations for the girl's condition but no true revelation
The film swings from its peak of 8.5 during Fujitani's most magnetic early scenes down to 6.4 in the final act as reviewers broadly agree the ending fails to deliver the revelation the film's ambition demands.
Ritual earns strong praise for its stunning cinematography, Ayako Fujitani's extraordinary central performance, and its richly symbolic visual world, with the film's first two acts generating genuine enthusiasm even among divided reviewers. The middle section splits audiences sharply along lines of tolerance for Anno's abstract, repetitive dialogue and heavy-handed symbolism, with passionate defenders invoking Fellini and Tarkovsky while detractors find the pseudo-philosophizing insufferable. The final act is the film's weakest point by near-consensus, with even admirers noting the pacing collapses and the ending substitutes explanation for revelation, leaving the film slightly short of the masterpiece its best moments promise.
Crew
Write a Review
Rate each story beat:
0 of 8 rated
Beats you skip are left out of your arc.
