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I've Loved You So Long
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 28 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Mystery
Written by: Philippe Claudel
Directed by: Philippe Claudel
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 24, 2008
DVD: March 3, 2009
Running Time: 115 minutes, Color
Origin: France
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for thematic material and smoking
Starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Laurent Grévill, Elsa Zylberstein, and Frédéric Pierrot
Lea and Juliette are sisters who are almost complete strangers. Juliette has just been released from prison after serving a long sentence. Lea contacted Juliette when she was released and suggested that Juliette come to live with her. Juliette had no particular desire to see her sister again. Life together isn’t easy to begin with. Juliette has to relearn certain basics. The world has moved on and she often seems confused. Although she may seem cold and distant, her attitude stems more from her being ill at ease. Gradually, the real Juliette emerges. She opens up to the world once more. But a huge question hangs over Juliette’s renaissance. Why did she do such a terrible thing fifteen years ago? (Sony Classics)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
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...
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Kristin Scott Thomas' performance in I've Loved You So Long is one of a small handful of highlights by which people will remember this year in movies. This is acting at its most exalted.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
For all its moodiness, despair and disconnect, I've Loved You So Long is all about acknowledging human error and embracing ties -- to family and life -- that can't be undone.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Their characters' desire (Scott Thomas and Zylberstein) -- no, need -- to repair their fragile bond feels as achingly real as the mother lode of hidden pain that gets exposed by the work of these two great actresses.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Philippe Claudel gives his heroine unusual depth, which Kristin Scott Thomas reveals with unusual passion.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Performances this strong and direction this sensitive make us simply grateful to have an emotional story we can sink our teeth into and enjoy.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt
But let's be honest: Any actress can do melancholy; it takes a special talent to recognize that there's a certain luxuriousness, a certain joy, to be found in longtime self-hatred.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
This film teaches the rewards of patience for directors, for actors and for audiences, too. The compelling reality of Juliette's plight comes from how subtly and gradually she emerges from her carapace.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
This is a picture of quiet observation, contained emotion, the hush before the cathartic scream.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
This is one of Kristin Scott Thomas' most inspired performances.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
The film deftly sketches a sibling relationship complicated by obligation, guilt, mistrust, and, not least, an abiding love.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
It's no insult to the rest to say that this is one of those films that sells itself on the strength of a single performance.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
Claudel turns out to be very good at the psychology of intimacy. An observant man, he has assembled a large (and, to us, unknown) cast of actors around his star, and he dramatizes her slow reawakening with an infinite number of small, sharply etched details.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
A revelation comes near the end that is both tremendously moving and a bit disappointing, in the way that the solutions to great mysteries frequently are. This turn does not diminish the accomplishment of Ms. Scott Thomas's deep, subtle and altogether stunning performance, but it does alter the scale of the movie, turning it into a more manageable, less existentially unsettling drama.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
Philippe Claudel's direction is both probing and delicate, and Scott Thomas's face, even immobile, keeps you watching, searching for hints of her character's past, unable to blink for fear of missing something vital.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Maggie Lee
A scintillating drama about pain and healing made with intelligence and compassion.
Read Full Review >Variety Derek Elley
A movie that is utterly engrossing despite being, on the surface, about very little.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
The movie's action largely takes place beneath the skin. The pace is slow but not glacial, yet Claudel demands patience. Ultimately, I've Loved You So Long is uplifting, although one might not expect that from the thematic material.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Writer/director Philippe Claudel knows just how to structure a character study of this sort, so that key elements and important secrets are revealed over time, piquing our interest. The film is almost like a novel or short story, so one's curiosity is satisfied slowly.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Scott Thomas' reserve as an actor - which probably helped keep her from top stardom after an Oscar nomination for "The English Patient" (1996) - makes her perfect casting for this French film, the auspicious debut of director Philippe Claudel.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
It would be easy to overrate I've Loved You So Long, which often dampens its best effects with undue tastefulness, but the image of Scott Thomas, with her despairing resilience, stays with one.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
This is a movie about actors acting; who cares why Juliette was in the pen?
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
The movie is held together by the scenes between Thomas and Zylberstein, which are superbly acted.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
A novelist and screenwriter, Claudel's directing for the first time here, and he leans on melodramatic contrivances more than he needs to. Still, he gives us a lean and observant weepie, and the mystery of Thomas's Juliette pulls you in.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Director Claudel makes you wait until film's end to discover why, exactly, Juliette committed her unspeakable crime, and it's the only disappointing aspect of the movie -- the only time I've Loved You So Long traipses into melodrama. But the rest of this utterly absorbing picture never strikes a false note.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Without Kristin Scott Thomas, I've Loved You So Long would be a watchable but hardly a memorable movie. With her, it's both - she so fully inhabits the character that everyone and everything around her are simply enhanced.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
Scott Thomas breathes more emotion into Juliette's affectless, haunted demeanor than most actors do with pages of dialogue.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ella Taylor
A modestly satisfying tale of sisterly love weighed down by a history of family betrayal and mendacity.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Claudel commits the cardinal sin of withholding the full story until the very end, when it spills out in a histrionic scene between the two sisters and largely exonerates the older one.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 28 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jen L gave it a9:
Unlike some of the critics, I didn't feel cheated by the end of the movie. I'm not sure what kind of ending would have satisfied them. Anyway, it was a very good movie - I didn't get bored at all watching it, which is rare.
Erick S gave it a9:
A sad, beautiful film featuring a heart-rending performance by Scott Thomas. Nuanced and subtle, yet intense and compelling.
Andrew gave it an8:
Linda L's review below captures my thoughts, though it's not a "10" to me. The film is all about KST's character's awakening after walling herself off for a couple decades. It's about life unfolding slowly around her as she begins to live. It's about the forbearance of family. The inability to forgive and understand. The callousness of narcissists. About life in general as we live it, with an extraordinary catalytic event at the center of the script. Good stuff, IMO. Enjoyed it.
Bob T gave it a1:
What a completely implausible, unrealistic tale. Why would any one not admit the true motive for such an act - love based euthanasia unless they were totally pathologically masochistic and equally totally inconsiderate of their family's feelings? Why wouldn't any one have arrived at the most obvious,and reasonable explanation? If you like a melodramatic weeper this film should float your boat. Of course Kristin is very easy on the eyes, even when morbid of visage as is mostly here .
Donald W gave it a4:
Boring, depressing, and lots of smoking. What a combination.
Paul D gave it a10:
Terrific novelistic movie with a superb central performance and vivid supporting characters. Kristin Scott Thomas elevates the movie above melodrama with her complex, subtle, multi-layered protrayal of a woman who is released from prison after 15 years for a seemingly horrible crime. Claudel provides strong direction with an emphasis on the little details that make all the difference in keeping the viewer hooked. Some people may find it a little slow, but I think this is primarily because most American movies seem to have been made for an audience with the attention span of a gnat. If Thomas doesn't receive an Academy Award nomination, there is no justice.
Linda P gave it a10:
A beautiful story of love and trust between sisters.
