Excellent adaptation.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Saw this at the Filmfest 2015 Ghent (Belgium) as part of the section Global Cinema. There were 3 volumes a 2 hours screened after another with nearly an hour in between to stretch our legs. I admit upfront that I only saw the 2nd and 3rd volume. I missed nr 1 as it overlapped with another movie that I eagerly wanted to see. Maybe I missed important clues revealed in the 1st volume, as I found the two volumes that I actually saw disappointing, and then I express myself mildly. Of course, I was prejudiced by the very many positive reviews, and am fully prepared to think it's all my fault. Nevertheless, I urgently feel the need to raise a counter voice, as I had serious trouble to find another review supporting my negative opinion. I located one (and only one) submitted as a user review on IMDb by FrostyChud, dated 5th of August 2015, titled "One of the worst films I've ever seen." very appropriately.The only part that I found edible was in Volume 2, the middle part "The tears of the judge". It started all right while revealing a chain of guilt and misdeed involving nearly all present in court, though it became a bit silly after a cow entered the proceedings, and the group of five masked crooks did not make it any better. The intentions of the other two stories in Volume 2 escaped me.The whole 3-volume project was announced as commentary on Portuguese economical politics, but I failed to connect the dots. Same a fortiori applies to Volume 3. I did not see Volume 1, and I don't regret missing it in any way. Still wondering about the many positive reviews. Technically there is nothing wrong with this tour-de-force that lasts over 6 hours in total: camera, lighting, casting and acting seem all right, and it looks like all participants did the best they could with the material at hand.

While I was enthralled with Arabian Nights' Volume 1, unfortunately the spark is lost for Volume 2, which is Portugal's submission for the Oscar in Best Foreign Language Film, but despite the trilogy's acclaim, it feels like a long shot if they're truly vying with this one. Anyone watching it as a standalone feature will struggle to go with its flow, and anyone who didn't like Volume 1 will be hard pressed to have their minds change. Its biggest problem is that the first two vignettes are tedious, void of the potency of Volume 1. One we follow an old man off-the-grid evading police, and another is a surreal courtroom sequence where we vaguely learn the hypocrisies of the system how everyone is guilty of some kind of criminal act. Considering the concept of the film is that we have a string of stories that are supposed to hook you in so much that you want to hear how they end, these two do not live up to those expectations. Inspiration seemed to be drained at the halfway mark. It's redeemed enough by the final tale, though it's still one of the weaker vignettes across the three films. It justifies the quiet restraint of Volume 2, which is perhaps why Portugal felt it would be more digestible to the Academy, though this one is still a little too loose. At the very least, it connects it back to the hardships of the everyday people as a lovely stray dog is passed around a tower block until each owner can no longer afford to look after it. Gomes employs more flourish that he had on full throttle for the first volume, with a Wes Anderson-esque tour of the block and its residents, finally bringing this volume back to life. Perhaps Gomes had a realisation about the repetition of the structure of Volumes 1 and 2, despite those early surprises, as Volume 3 takes things in a different direction.See the other volumes for the rest of my review for Arabian Nights.7/10Read more @ The Awards Circuit (http://www.awardscircuit.com/)

Don't follow the critic above. My opinion it's about the complete film, and I believe that the movie is simply marvelous, wonderful, a total gem, is sad and moving, but also humorous, free and poetic. It's absolutely original, is cinema in is true meaning. Miguel Gomes is one the greatest directors alive. I hope that he will receive the recognition that he deserves has a great filmmaker. The two previous films: Our beloved month of August and Tabu, were already great, but The Arabian Nights is even better. It's one of the few films that I saw in the last years that I call a masterpiece, and probably has in part I, one of the most beautiful title sequences of the history of the cinema.

There is probably no point writing this review. The film left theaters here in Paris yesterday and will probably never be screened anywhere ever again. However, this film is so bad that I have to write something. I can feel it in my body like a bad meal that I've eaten and need to throw up. I should have walked out of the theater when I realized that it was a political movie. Before the story starts, the director tells us that the stories were inspired by the austerity measures implemented in Portugal in 2014. Political films are never good. Political "art" films are universally terrible. The first chapter in the movie is the best. We follow an old criminal around. The camera work itself generates a sense of mystery. Not much...but just enough to keep the spectator from walking out. We don't need dialogue. A story looks like it is beginning to take shape, but it never does. The film begins to go off the rails with the next section. The director treats us to a heavy-handed, juvenile illustration of the impossibility of assigning blame in a corrupt society. I found myself averting my eyes from the screen the way you avert your eyes from someone who is humiliating themselves in order not to embarrass them further. I breathed a sigh of relief when it was over.The last section, however, is the worst. It is so depressing. It is depressing because it is boring. There is no life here. The director is trying to show us the nefarious effects of austerity on the Portuguese people...he succeeds only in making us feel joyless. I don't want to dedicate any more time to this terrible film. Above all it is boring, dreadfully boring. People were walking out at a rate of one person every twenty minutes. There were only about twelve people to begin with. Indeed, I walked out fifteen minutes before the end of the film...my way of giving the bird to this awful movie. DON'T WATCH IT!