Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
72 Adela
39 Adventures of Power
78 Afghan Star
61 After the Storm
66 Afterschool
xx All the Best
58 American Casino
72 Amreeka
48 Antichrist
73 Araya
62 Art & Copy
55 As Seen Through These Eyes
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
13 Beautiful Life, A
70 Beeswax
35 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71 Big Fan
66 Black Dynamite
51 Blind Date
xx Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76 Bliss
35 Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57 Boys Are Back, The
45 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
70 Bronson
45 Burning Plain, The
xx Carriers
55 Casi Divas
57 Chelsea on the Rocks
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
59 Collapse
44 Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
67 Departures
xx Dil Bole Hadippa
71 Disgrace
xx Do Knot Disturb
70 Earth Days
24 Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
xx Eulogy for a Vampire
xx Everyone Else
xx Fatal Promises
56 Fifty Dead Men Walking
62 Five Minutes of Heaven
74 Flame & Citron
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
28 Free Style
xx From Mexico with Love
50 Fuel
25 Gentlemen Broncos
50 Give Me Your Hand
58 Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
52 Grace
66 Harmony and Me
81 Headless Woman, The
xx Heretics, The
63 Horse Boy, The
73 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
74 Humpday
94 Hurt Locker, The
29 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16 If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75 In Search of Beethoven
83 In the Loop
61 Intimate Enemies
42 Irene in Time
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
19 Labor Day
xx Laila's Birthday
41 Little Ashes
41 Little Traitor, The
66 Liverpool
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
83 Maid, The
xx Ministers, The
59 More Than a Game
67 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
xx Mystery Team
48 New York, I Love You
73 Night and Day
66 No Impact Man
47 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34 Other Man, The
xx Painter Sam Francis, The
54 Paper Heart
xx Paradise
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
44 Peter and Vandy
35 Play the Game
77 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx Pretty Ugly People
65 Providence Effect, The
76 Rembrandt's J'accuse
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
40 Shrink
61 Skin
77 Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx Skiptracers
46 Splinterheads
39 St. Trinian's
89 Still Walking
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
55 Storm
65 Tetro
70 That Evening Sun
72 Thirst
xx Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61 Trucker
xx Turning Green
83 U2 3D
66 Unmade Beds
66 Unmistaken Child
70 Visual Acoustics
55 Walt & El Grupo
67 Way We Get By, The
69 We Live in Public
64 Wedding Song, The
64 Where is Where?
xx White on Rice
74 Woman in Berlin, A
69 World's Greatest Dad
70 Yes Men Fix the World
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx You, the Living

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

EMAILPRINTIFC First Take

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days reviews
97
7.9 User Score:

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama

Written by: Cristian Mungiu

Directed by: Cristian Mungiu

Release Date:
Theatrical: January 23, 2008
DVD: October 14, 2008

Running Time: 113 minutes, Color

Origin: Romania

Language(s): Romanian / English

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu, Vlad Ivanov, and Alexandru Potocean

During the final days of communism in Romania, two college roommates Otilia and Gabita are busy preparing for a night away. But rather than planning for a holiday, they are making arrangements for Gabita's illegal abortion and unwittingly, both find themselves burrowing deep down a rabbit hole of unexpected revelations. (IFC Entertainment)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Empire Damon Wise

Tense, kinetic, intelligent and real – as if Paul Greengrass had remade Vera Drake.

Read Full Review >
100

Time Richard Corliss

One of the strongest movies in recent years.

Read Full Review >
100

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

This is a film with a commitment to reality unlike any we're used to seeing.

Read Full Review >
100

Variety Jay Weissberg

Pitch perfect and brilliantly acted, 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days is a stunning achievement, helmed with a purity and honesty that captures not just the illegal abortion story at its core but the constant, unremarked negotiations necessary for survival in the final days of the Soviet bloc.

Read Full Review >
100

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Though the frighteningly late-term abortion at its center hints at larger sins in the last gasp of Nicolae Ceausescu’s iron-fisted regime, it’s no metaphor, but a sordidly visceral transaction conducted in the next best thing to a back alley.

Read Full Review >
100

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Nothing good happens in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, the riveting, horrifying chronicle of an illegal abortion performed in 1987 when Ceauescu's dictatorial hand still gripped Romania's throat. And yet no lover of greatness in filmmaking will want to look away from one of the very best movies of 2007.

Read Full Review >
100

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

It’s a pitiless, violent story that in its telling becomes a haunting and haunted intellectual and aesthetic achievement.

Read Full Review >
100

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

4 Months unfolds like one of those street-level Dardenne brothers movies (Rosetta, L'Enfant).

Read Full Review >
100

Premiere Glenn Kenny

A remarkably engrossing and thoughtful picture, beautifully rendered in an artful mode of realism.

Read Full Review >
100

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Elegantly crafted, brilliantly acted film.

Read Full Review >
100

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

This year’s foreign language Oscar scandal – there is always at least one – is the snub of director Cristian Mungiu’s disturbing, masterful realist drama following two college roommates as they carry out plans for one’s black market abortion in Communist Romania.

Read Full Review >
100

TV Guide Ken Fox

The film is bold stroke that hopes to push Romanian society forward by staring into the dismal failures of its recent past.

Read Full Review >
100

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Despite their terrible ordeal these women are heroes, not victims. As Mungiu makes clear in the casual, brilliant final scene of this amazing movie, heroes persevere.

Read Full Review >
100

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

First, this movie should be enjoyed. Later, marveled at. And then, once the excitement has faded, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days really should be studied, because director Cristian Mungiu creates scenes unlike any ever filmed.

100

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The New Wave of Romanian cinema is the most exciting in the world right now. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days is its latest masterpiece.

Read Full Review >
100

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Writer-director Cristian Mungiu confirms the Romanian cinema renaissance while creating a paradoxical marvel: a bleak tale of illegal abortion that powerfully affirms one's faith in people.

Read Full Review >
100

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The result is a mixture of unified atmosphere and lived-in character study, and while Vasiliu’s role is not as indelible as that of her co-stars, Marinca’s Otilia and Ivanov’s steely abortionist are just about perfect.

Read Full Review >
100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This is a powerful film and a stark visual accomplishment, but no thanks to Gabita (Laura Vasiliu). The driving character is her roommate Otilia (Anamaria Marinca), who does all the heavy lifting.

Read Full Review >
100

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

A grueling and deeply affecting human drama.

Read Full Review >
100

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

In a truly great movie the form becomes indistinguishable from the story, and that’s certainly the case here.

Read Full Review >
100

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Romanian writer-director Cristian Mungiu's brilliantly discomfiting second feature is one long premonition of disaster.

Read Full Review >
100

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

You just don't expect Hollywood to produce a masterwork so early in the new year. And it hasn't. This slice of celluloid dynamite comes from Romania, and what you see will floor you.

Read Full Review >
100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Without a single gunshot (and just one flick of a switchblade), it turns into an existential suspense film with the highest stakes imaginable: the survival of the human spirit.

Read Full Review >
100

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Brilliant, suspenseful, absolutely riveting film.

Read Full Review >
90

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Anamaria Marinca delivers an utterly transfixing performance as Otilia, a young woman who helps a friend (Laura Vasiliu) obtain an illegal abortion in the waning days of Romania's communist Ceausescu regime.

Read Full Review >
90

New York Magazine David Edelstein

The coup de grâce is especially graceless because everything we know is already visible in Marinca’s eyes. The actress is extraordinary.

Read Full Review >
90

Slate Dana Stevens

A beautiful and formally compelling work of art.

Read Full Review >
88

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Relentlessly dark but expertly rendered, it shares its cinematographer and quality of aggrieved compassion with another recent Romanian art house hit, "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu."

Read Full Review >
88

USA Today Claudia Puig

Depressing and gut-wrenching, but always powerful and gripping.

Read Full Review >
88

New York Post V.A. Musetto

It is filmmaking as it should be but usually isn't.

Read Full Review >
88

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Despite being slow and deliberate, it is often compelling and occasionally riveting. As "The Lives of Others" was in 2007, this is the first memorable movie of 2008.

Read Full Review >
83

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A grueling film in both technique and subject matter.

Read Full Review >
80

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

This is a tale of friendship, corruption, betrayal and desperation masterfully told without an ounce of filmmaking flash and with an unflinching commitment to realism.

Read Full Review >
80

The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett

The film is dark, gloomy and without music, but it is also observant and highly suspenseful, with Mungiu using his often static camera to balance banal cruelty with simple generosity.

Read Full Review >
80

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

Mungiu’s pacing is so sure, however, in its switching from loose to taut, and the concentration of his leading lady so unwavering, that the movie, which won the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, feels more like a thriller than a moody wallow.

Read Full Review >
78

Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt

A curious filmgoing experience: Virtuosic, assured, and possessed of undeniable aesthetic force, it’s also hard not to turn away from.

Read Full Review >
63

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

It makes "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" and "12:08 East of Bucharest," the last glum Romanian movies about life under dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, seem merry.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 116 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Mike H gave it a5:
After having seen the rave reviews on Metacritic I decided to buy this film. Honestly, I'm at a loss as to what all the fuss is about! It seemed like the film never really got going, I couldn't connect with it, and, as other people have said, not a great deal happens. Though not the worst film I've seen by a long-shot, disappointment was my main feeling, that and waiting for it to end...

James O gave it a1:
God awful. This is another independent movie that has the critics' panties all in a bunch. The reason it's terrible: nothing happens in the movie. It plods along with scenes of dialogue followed by more scenes of dialogue about the most mundane shit ever. Yeah, it sucks to be living in an oppressive Communist society. We get it. At least make it more interesting with a STORY or something. Acting is decent. The scenery and props are pretty good too; it's pretty drab and depressing looking which gives it atmosphere. Otherwise, a complete waste of time.

Coco Bunny gave it a9:
One of the most compelling and heartbreaking films I've ever seen. It tackles the hard subjects of totalitarianism or abortion without beating you over the head with a given message. It simply tells the story of these two girls--a very sad one at that.

Anna gave it a10:
Excellent movie, not for the light hearted, though. paradoxically enough, it is not really about what seems to be the main event: an abortion. Instead, it captures in a both subtle and gripping manner the essence of communism: a system corrupt to the bone that rules through fear, where everyone keeps an eye on someone else and the only way to survive is to become part of that system. The inherent dehumanisation such a system brings about does not escape the director.

Evan W gave it a10:
An excellent piece of foreign cinema. You can feel it slowly clasp onto you, then push you down to the ground. It leaves with you with an emotional feeling that is hard to find with movies.

Mircea C. gave it an8:
For those who don't know yet (and I can see there are a lot in here) Romania IS/WAS NOT PART OF THE SOVIET UNION. Learn some geography before posting here, ok?

Kris R. gave it a9:
This was an emotionally riveting, haunting film. The acting was extraordinary.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use