Review of Three Monkeys

I agree with most of the commenters' praise of the cinematography and the art direction. Nuri Bilge Ceylan also makes great use of the weather to express a mood. In his "Distant" the snowstorm was almost the main character and here thunderstorms make several portentous appearances. But the main reason to see this film is the enigmatic performance of the lovely and sexy Hatice Aslan as the lonely wife, Hacer. Her expressive face lingers long after the curtain falls.

But I would quarrel with the turn the plot takes half way through the movie. I can understand Hacer's having a fling with Servet, the feckless politician for whom her husband is taking the rap. She is lonely and was probably under-appreciated by her husband even before he went to jail, thus making her vulnerable to Servet's attentions. Not to mention, she wanted to secure the money to try to revive her slacker son. But to then have her become insanely obsessed with Servet stretches credulity—-especially with her husband's imminent return. It would have been far more believable IMHO for Servet to become obsessed with Hacer. Then the plot could have unfolded in a climactic way when her husband returned. In fact it could have ended almost the same way. But that would have been my movie and not Mr. Ceylan's