Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

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.

Steven Bradford It's difficult to say why this film is so bad without giving away the shock ending. For the first 80 minutes it seems a beautifully photographed portrait of a small community within Istanbul that is endangered by the rush of time and progress, and the young man who tries to save a small piece of it. Then with little warning, or rationale from the plot, the lead character meets a violent end, literally out of nowhere. The male love interest disappears, and the cheating wife swoops in to claim the Turkish bath her husband had been restoring. It's pretty obvious this is a tacked on ending to make the film acceptable to the censors, and the audience in its country.

thomas.grob When I rented the tape ‘Hamam, the Turkish Bath' at my local video store, I had wrong expectations of what the movie would be about. And while I might agree with all those comments saying that the movie is subtle and that there is just little ‘action' going on (well, there is only action at the very end of the movie), it's just the kind of movie you'll leave the cinema and tell your friends: ‘Oh, I've got to think about it. But it's lovely photographed!'. In other words: You're totally confused and not sure at all whether you didn't get the story because there wasn't one or you just…,well, didn't ‘get it'. It's up to you. But let me add just one thing: If you're out to see a romantic GAY movie with an ending that encourages you to live your gay life instead of getting married, you better see MAURICE. Otherwise ‘Hamam' is exactly the movie you ought to see.My rating for that movie: 4 of 10

rimsey-2 Visually interesting and an engaging-enough plot but the characters failed to arouse any emotion. Towards the end of the movie we learn that someone wanted to name their baby after Francesco and I asked myself why. He does nothing in the movie except brood and read his aunt's letters and for some reason everyone who meets him in Turkey seems to think he's Mr Charisma. All I can say is they obviously don't get out much.