When life imitates art unexpectedly, it can be thrilling, exciting, and maybe even dangerous. As dissatisfied wife Gokce finds an unpublished novel, we hoped that her eventual escapades would be similarly riveting, but sadly, Ashes isn’t thrilling. Part of it is because the first half is just dedicated to pretty images that don’t even feel particularly steamy, but mostly this stems from the fact that Ashes hasn’t formulated a coherent plotline for the manuscript Gokce was reading, so all the twists and turns in the second half feels more randomly tossed, than carefully set up as a surprise.
From an intoxicating fantasy to a dangerous affair, a wealthy married woman finds her life irreversibly shattered after picking up an unpublished novel.
Intrigued at an unpublished manuscript from her husband’s publishing firm, wealthy yet dissatisfied Gokce discovers that one of the book’s locations is real, prompting her to continue reading the novel, and jumping into an intoxicating, and possibly dangerous, affair.
The shots of Ashes are stunning, but these images might have been more powerful if they were made for an emotionally and logically coherent script. Honestly, it feels like they were just trying to compile as many beautiful scenes as they can for someone’s videography portfolio.
I need to know where Gokce got her outfits, though…
Cannes
1 nomination
