La Vie en Rose

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Olivier Dahan's La Vie en Rose, one of the best biopics I've seen, tells Piaf's life story through the extraordinary performance of Marion Cotillard, who looks like the singer.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

For Piaf fans, La Vie en Rose is a must-see. For fans yet-to-be, Dahan and Cotillard's film is an opportunity rich with discovery.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Olivier Dahan's sprawling portrait of the life of Edith Piaf is the kind of grand, passionate historical drama that no one seems to be able to pull off any more.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Dahan's impressionistic heartbreaker of a movie gets it all in. And Marion Cotillard, lip-syncing Piaf's songs and digging into her soul with gale-force urgency, gives a performance for the ages.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

It's sometimes wrenching to watch, but it's too gripping to turn away from.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Hurtling and impassioned, driven by some of the greatest popular music ever recorded, this wildly overripe and unkempt biopic is a true experience.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Cotillard brings honesty to histrionics. She makes Piaf - "the little sparrow" - soar.

Austin Chronicle Toddy Burton

How do you tell the true story of a mythical woman? In epic proportions, of course.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It's not an ideal film, but it has the virtue of the ideal star, and that counts.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

If even half of Olivier Dahan's robust film about Piaf's life is true -- and let's face it, much remains shrouded in myth and mystery -- it's a wonder she could get dressed in the morning, let alone forge a legendary singing career.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

La Vie en Rose elevates Piaf the archetype over Piaf the artist. Although I question this approach, I'm not sure it could have been done any differently, at least given the facts of Piaf's life. If there is such a way, Duhan didn't find it.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Kamal AL-Solaylee

Surprisingly but fittingly, for a film about the life of a singer, the use of songs is generally elliptical.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Thanks to the extraordinary performance of Cotillard, who expertly lip- syncs to Piaf recordings and disappears into the part, few will regret seeing La Vie En Rose, named after a famous Piaf tune. Just brace yourself for a film of unvarying intensity that seems longer than its 140-minute running time.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The song for which Piaf is best-known - "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" ("No Regrets") - leads to a killer finale with Cotillard perfectly lip-synching Piaf's recording of it. Trust me; you'll want to own it.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The film is long and sometimes harrowing, but also enthralling.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Marion Cotillard astonishes as Edith Piaf in 'La Vie en Rose.

Washington Post Philip Kennicott

Cotillard leaves you loving her Piaf, wishing you could reach through the screen and steer her life a bit differently.

USA Today Staff (Not credited)

There's a riveting tale within this awkward litany of pivotal moments. Still, despite the film's uneven nature, Cotillard's extraordinary performance is worth experiencing.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Wildly uneven.

Empire Anna Smith

A far-from-rosy life story makes this lengthy biopic entertaining, but despite a strong lead performance it fails to get under Piaf’s skin.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

She lip-syncs convincingly to Piaf's songs. Even when she overacts like mad, she makes you think she’s Piaf overacting like mad--the little sparrow with the foghorn pipes.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The film is messy the way Piaf's life was messy: It's unafraid of extravagant gestures even when they fail to come off.

San Francisco Chronicle Steven Winn

A feverish, unremitting and grimly joyless film.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Dahan's filmmaking damn near sabotages the performance.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

La Vie en Rose, which Mr. Dahan wrote as well as directed, has an intricate structure, which is a polite way of saying that it's a complete mess... In the end, as often happens in movies of this kind, La Vie en Rose is saved by Piaf herself.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

Uplifted beyond its merits by a stunning performance from Marion Cotillard, the humdrum biopic of Edith Piaf, La Vie En Rose, jogs obligingly along with Piaf the legend rather than the woman.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Marion Cotillard tears up all the available scenery in this overblown, achronological biopic of French pop singer Edith Piaf.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

For all its florid pretensions and epic length, the film's overwrought take on its subject's not-so-rosy life leaves behind no lasting insight.

Time Richard Schickel

There is no rhyme or reason to this jumble -- except perhaps to stress Edith's endless self-victimization. This lack of narrative coherence naturally has the effect of distancing us from her story.