A Perfect Day | Telescope Film
A Perfect Day

A Perfect Day (Naoussé)

User Rating

  • France,
  • Lebanon,
  • Germany
  • 2005
  • · 88m

Director Khalil Joreige
Cast Ziad Saad, Alexandra Kahwagi, Julia Kassar
Genre Drama

Malek's daily life is tormented by sleep disorders and obsessive thoughts of his ex-girlfriend. Meanwhile, his overbearing mother struggles with the disappearance of her husband, who was kidnapped more than 15 years ago during the Civil War. Just as things look irreparable, one decisive day leaves them both with a chance to move on.

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What are critics saying?

88

Chicago Sun-Times by Richard Roeper

With an eclectic soundtrack that features...well-timed editing and crisp cinematography — and of course that terrific cast led by the great Del Toro — A Perfect Day is a rough-edged gem.

75

RogerEbert.com by Glenn Kenny

The characters in A Perfect Day don’t get to indulge in much eccentricity because they’re too busy banging their wills against bureaucratic idiocy.

70

Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern

This wonderful little film, directed by Fernando León de Aranoa and set “somewhere in the Balkans” in 1996, is extremely witty and light on its feet, yet it manages to be thoughtful, even philosophical, in an absurdist way, about the roots of human conflict.

67

The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo

On a moment-to-moment basis, A Perfect Day is reasonably engaging, mostly because of its novel milieu—there haven’t been many films about foreign aid workers, and Farías clearly amassed a wealth of anecdotes during her time with DWB. Trouble is, it plays like a collection of anecdotes.

67

Entertainment Weekly by Chris Nashawaty

Del Toro’s low-key resignation gives the film what power it has, but the female characters (played by Mélanie Thierry and Olga Kurylenko) are disappointingly thin.

63

New York Post by Lou Lumenick

The ironically titled A Perfect Day isn’t entirely successful, but Del Toro is wonderful and there are many well-judged moments, some involving a 9-year-old (Eldar Residovic) whose return to his home underlines the tragedies of this particular conflict.