"Demonizes an entire religious group"? Did you pay attention to the film at all? I've seen the film and wish to break this down for a second. Shouldn't any group of people that allow the brutal stoning of human beings as a form of "honor killing" be scrutinized? Furthermore, this movie does not demonize all Muslims ,considering that it's widely known that all Muslims do not participate in stoning, so to assume otherwise is your own shortcoming as a moviegoer. The people in the film used stoning as a tool and if anything this is a very pro-Muslim film. Regardless, I strongly recommend that film-lover and activist alike go see this film.

All I have to say is shame on you Lindy West, and to all you others, this movie is not about religion, it is about truth. Islam is a beautiful religion, and some have corrupted it to fulfill their own perverse ideals, but that is exactly what the movie shows. Reading racism in this movie is a very juvenile perspective, one that hasn't taken the time to really hear what is being said.

When you consider who financed this film (founder of private security firm and was profiteer Blackwater) your brain ought to think, "what am I watching exactly?" Then when you discover the book was written by a Shah supporting expatriate, you should then think, "how true was that book?" And the bigger problem? Outside of this author, no one has ever corroborated this story. So you begin to ask yourself, "based on a true story?"

But the questions do not end there once you watch this movie. In the opening sequence, we are faced with a woman who is burying the stoned woman's bones in what can best be described as a very poor sand castle. Never mind that the bones look like the chicken you ate last night or of course, that only one dog was shown to have eaten the body of this stoned woman and still looked pretty malnourished from eating a 130lb human. It turns out that the criminal masterminds (all the townsmen) who killed her were satisfied to have her body thrown by a shallow creek for everyone to see, though they did dig a hole to stone her in.

By the way, I'm not sure how many wild dogs there are in Iran, but considering that Muslims see dogs as a filthy animal and don't keep them, I'm pretty sure there aren't huge packs of them around to dispose of a human corpse in about 10 hours, even if that was the case.

Though reference is made to the Shah in a valiant manner, "the Shah isn't around anymore!" shouts one man, nothing is ever said about the untold murders under the Shah, but we'll just belie that fact and accept this fairy-tale narrative. Suspending disbelief is the norm when you watch this film. Nothing is made of the fact either, that the husband who concocts this whole stoning, could also marry up to four wives under Islam and doesn't need a divorce or his wife's permission to do so. There is no alimony in Islam, so I'm not sure why there is even talk about that either, if he divorced her. Essentially, you begin wondering why this husband would even bother with this at all or why he needs to blackmail the mullah to go along with it, when he can already have his cake and eat it, too.

In actuality, when the mullah asks the wife to marry him in mutah, that could have been a poignant part of the film and maybe even a great topic to delve into, itself. Seeing as to how temporary marriage is practiced in Iran and is common among some demographics, as a viewer, you are left wondering why this story even has a basis. And why in the world does the wife want to stay with this guy anyways? We're led to believe that she has no money and is worried about her children starving, but nowhere is that ever depicted. If anything, we see her on a picnic with her kids. Don't ask me to explain that one.

The whole idea about getting 2 people to conspire against the wife to be stoned might have tread some water if the accusation had been more than "taking a nap in a bed." No, that's not euphemistic for sex. They never claimed she had adultery, just that she touched a man's hand and took a nap. That's it.

The director could have least come up with the four witnesses needed in this country to make the accusation plausible on film, but all we get is two and of course, her father goes along. Why her father hates her enough to kill her (he only shows up at the time to kill her), we are never really told. We just have to take it that all these guys are pigs, I guess.

One of the witnesses (her employer) doesn't even want to go along with it. So the mullah and the husband threaten his mentally handicapped kid, but even the boy's behavior was portrayed so poorly, I thought he was just dumb. The whole scene of strong arming him was softer than the after school bully who stole your gummy bears at school. Also, never mind the fact that her employer seemed to be so needful of and affectionate to Soraya that you thought they could marry. But instead, he's cool enough to go with the stoning instead of bedding a beautiful and younger wife, whom so happened to be best friends with his just-deceased wife. That's why Soraya is working for him, which was the suggestion of the mullah and her husband as a way to get rid of her initially. Yes, if this sounds stupid, it's because it is.

The scene with the 14yr. old bride doesn't seem as weird as it should, when she's smiling in front of her parents to the man she's supposed to marry. Before you think that's chauvinistic of me, my grandmother got married at 15. I wasn't sure what to make about the husband cruising around in his Camaro, either. Since we knew by this time that he was beating, raping and cheating on his wife, it wasn't a shock to see him with a prostitute. Wait a minute. If he's sexing whores openly, why does he need to get a divorce or get married again? If you think that's salacious, he's just actually driving away with her in his car. We're told the rest of the story by the pissed off aunt in her rants.

By this time, you're about as bored as I was when it got to the actual stoning. The fact that a little carnival of a midget and a clown show up during the 'show' made this scene completely craptastic. Don't worry, the AK-47 stereotype Muslims show up out of nowhere to oversee things. They just grunt and handle people in less convincing fashion than a parking valet.

If you wondered how the director could destroy the climax of his own movie, then you haven't seen a midget beating a drum during it while the clown puts on his makeup. The actual stoning itself is a bit graphic when blood stars pouring from the top of her head, but call me 'jaded' because it didn't seem worse that a scene from the Exorcist or Saw. I know I was supposed to be outraged, but who in the world could believe a two kids about 10 and 12 could stone their own mother. Keep in mind that one of them was crying for her about 10 minutes before, but becomes a monster and then, we find them both crying again at the end of it.

I hate to say it, but the stoning is not as brutal as it should have been. Maybe it was the clown, the stupidity of the events up to this point, the directing, the aforementioned plot holes or my strong stomach, but to those who said they cried at this part, I wondered at how they didn't snooze off before they waited for it. And of course, the midget and clown go to cover her body afterwards. To any person who has ever been stoned in real life, this was a disgusting display of callousness of the director's part. Having the women go to her body would have been somewhat a saving grace, if he had the sense to direct. Instead, the women wrap her up and throw her down by the river for the dogs. Yes, her aunt that loved her so much to reveal Soraya's story, couldn't dig a damn hole for her while everyone partied away with the clown.

The ending sequence with the journalist escaping (I've had more suspense watching my ice cream cone melt) was ridiculous. The previous day we were led to believe that these townsmen were bloodthirsty maniacs who killed their neighbor, but can't bring themselves to shot a gun at a stranger because a woman is blocking their way with her veil. All they muster to do is throw a stone at his car and watch the crazy aunt yell at the sky.

The end.

Oh and by the way, if it hadn't been for the meddling aunt in the beginning who was eavesdropping and sneaking into her niece's house, it seemed plausible that Soraya would have married the mullah and this whole film would have ended there. Soraya never mentioned to the mullah why she didn't want to marry, she doesn't hit him or yells at him. It was the aunt who did so. The same aunt who, 1 minute later, refuses to take her niece into her home when asked so she can escape her husband. That's right, Soraya asked for refuge from her aunt, who turns them away. The same aunt who calls everyone else a jerk.

Read that again. Yeah, I didn't believe it, either. Why do people claim this movie is so great, then? I don't know. Maybe these are the same folks who hear their abused neighbor being beaten next door and turn up the radio to drown out her screams.