Avaliações do Metacritic

The movie is uncommonly absorbing.

Beautiful moments abound. In Departures, the contemplation of death prepares the way for an appreciation of life.

Yojiro Takita, who directed enduring commercial hits like "The Ying Yang Master" and "The Yen Family," has made a popular gem -- thematically respectable, technically hard to fault, artfully scripted to entertain and touch.

Departures is built for simplicity, and, if nothing else, the appeal to decency and integrity of this sweetly old-fashioned tale make it a must for Bernie Madoff's prison Netflix queue.

It will absolutely delight the art-house crowd. Multiplexes will be crowded with noisy summer films, after all, from which Departures will represent a sophisticated and elegant departure.

TV scribe Kundo Koyama's first bigscreen script peppers the proceedings with rich character detail and near-screwball interludes that shouldn't fit but somehow do.

Departures is tender and, at times, rather squishy. It's sure to squeeze the tear ducts of anyone who has lost a parent.

It will resonate with anyone who has ever buried a loved one and struggled to reconcile the myriad emotions--grief, anger, helplessness. Which is to say, everyone. And yet out of this premise comes glop. Departures needed a little more work in the morgue--like cutting to the bone.

Overlong, predictable in its plotting and utterly banal in its blending of comic whimsy and melodramatic pathos.

Here's a great way to start savoring life: Don't waste it on pat manipulations like this.