Darshan, The Embrace: Critic Reviews

Filling our heads with pretty pictures and not much else, Darshan: The Embrace is likely to leave audiences enchanted but unenlightened.

The effect, however, is tranquilizing. It's disorienting and misleading, too, having the unintentional effect of making the holy woman seem like a mysterious kook.

Without explanatory narration, the impressionistic editing is likely to prove tedious for the uninitiated.

Her teachings are trite.

You may walk away from Darshan, if it moves you at all, smiling yourself. After all, we could all use a hug.

Director Jan Kounen clearly reveres his subject, too; you begin yearning for some skeptics to restore the balance, but they never appear.

Far from inundating viewers with a litany of facts, Jan Kounen has his lilting camera drift through the colorful streets of India, recording Amma from a you-are-there vantage.

[A] handsomely photographed but one-sided documentary.

This well-made film illuminates the power of a charismatic personality in rousing the multitudes.

Lacks both narrative edge and a complex world view.

a beautifully filmed portrait of a woman who embodies a human love that is nothing short of miraculous

It may have been Ari Gold on HBO's "Entourage" who coined the phrase "hug it out," but it's Indian guru Amma who lives it.

Unless you're already a true believer, Amma comes across in Darshan as a perfect angel, a frustrating enigma and a rather dull cinematic subject.

Less National Geographic and more personal history would have added a dimension to Darshan.

Kounen captures the squalor of Indian everyday life, as well as the tranquil faces and holy places of everything that passes his camera's gaze.

Works better as a sad meditation on the spiritual hopes of a poverty-stricken people than as a portrait of a charismatic guru.

A loose and often not-so-engrossing assortment of scenes intended to showcase Amma's hold on her followers.

Even if the idea of spiritual gurus and personality cults make you slightly uncomfortable, Jan Kounen's beautifully filmed portrait of Sri Mata Amritanandamayi offers enough beautiful shots of India to seduce even the least spiritual of travelers.

A documentary about Amma, India's hugging saint, that reveals her large reserves of unconditional love, playfulness, compassion, and service of the poor.

Jan Kounen's Darshan- The Embrace extols the healing power of touch, revealing, cinematically and without condescension, the appeal of Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi.