Provoked

Despite being based on a true story, the film's presentation is overly dramatic and the characters seem too stereotypical.

What should have turned out as a terrific movie about the crime of spousal abuse has instead received the equivalent of a ham-handed molestation by director Mundhra.

The real-life heroes in this story deserve better than a formulaic, poorly shot melodrama.

The script is melodramatic, and Rai's lead performance is thin stuff.

[Director] Mundhra can't control the expansiveness of the melodrama or focus on the terseness of realism. Every character in Provoked, from victims to tyrants, Indian to English, loud to quiet, ends up as a grossly exaggerated comic creation.

Provoked rarely ducks below its glossy surface.

Full of clichés. [Full review in Spanish]

A melodrama dressed up just enough to hold interest, in the retelling of an undeniably important story.

By offsetting Women in Cages-style throw-downs with Malcolm X-like uplift, it is simultaneously strange and familiar, inspiring and annoying.

In the end, Provoked is not provocative enough.