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Daybreak

EMAILPRINTNewmarket Films

Daybreak reviews
60
10.0 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 15 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 1 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Foreign

Written by: Björn Runge

Directed by: Björn Runge

Release Date:
Theatrical: February 2, 2005

Running Time: 108 minutes, Color

Origin: Sweden

Language(s): Swedish (with English subtitles)

Summary

RATING: R for language including sexual references

Starring Pernilla August, Jacob Eklund, Marie Richardson, Leif Andrée, Peter Andersson, Ann Petrén, Sanna Krepper, and Ingvar Hirdwall

Daybreak is a film about people in a state of change. It is a story about the need for a chance in order to survive; it is a story about love being greater than hate. (Newmarket Films)

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...

90

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Masterfully paced and constructed, and the performances are memorable.

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80

Variety Gunnar Rehlin

One of the most impressive films to come out of Sweden in the past year. Ace acting, powerful direction and engaging storylines.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

To the extent that this difficult but ultimately rewarding film has a message, it's that you can't run away from who you are.

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70

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

It maintains a strong enough sense of squirmy humanity that its characters' epiphanies and emotional growth feel both hard-earned and richly deserved.

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67

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The snappish domestic infighting is effectively staged, yet beneath its ''raw'' atmosphere Daybreak traffics in pop-sociological clichés.

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63

New York Post Debra Birnbaum

Dark, depressing drama.

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60

Empire Patrick Peters

Shifting between bourgeois soap, tabloid parable and tale of the unexpected, this three-storied study of salvation in extremis makes for unsettling but compelling viewing.

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60

LA Weekly Kim Morgan

Though the acting is uniformly excellent, especially Petren in her bilious rage, Daybreak doesn't provide anything like the cumulative catharsis of, say, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf." We don't really care about these people - we just want someone to make them stop.

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60

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Strongly acted by a highly competent ensemble.

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60

The New York Times Stephen Holden

If Daybreak weren't so powerfully acted, its accumulating anguish would be too much to bear. As it is, all three couples, especially Knut and Mona, verge on caricature.

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60

TV Guide Ken Fox

Runge's coolly photographed, intricately plotted feature is always interesting in its execution, but disappointingly pat in its resolution.

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50

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Involving and sometimes comically bleak but never fully convincing as drama.

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50

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

If you're going to put us through hell, you'd better make it worth our while. Though Daybreak boasts a couple of minor insights and a compelling performance from Pernilla August, only the masochistically inclined will consider them sufficient reward.

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50

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The characters are so over-the-top with emotional pain -- that they are hardly credible as characters.

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40

Village Voice Melissa Anderson

A studied, overwrought look into Personal Crisis and Redemption.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes

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

Marty M. gave it a10:
Best film I've seen so far in the PIFF press preview weeks.

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