GAMES: GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer MUSIC: Last.fm | MP3.com MOVIES: Metacritic | Movietome TV: TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Film

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

xx All of Us
53 Allah Made Me Funny: Live in Concert
57 Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela, The
64 Appaloosa
69 Ashes of Time Redux
68 August Evening
xx B.O.H.I.C.A.
62 Baghead
84 Ballast
54 Battle in Seattle
xx Beer for My Horses
75 Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
xx Billy: The Early Years
66 Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story
56 Bottle Shock
55 Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
50 Breakfast with Scot
61 Brick Lane
43 Call and Response
62 Changeling
49 Children of Huang Shi, The
47 Choke
46 Choose Connor
84 Christmas Tale, A
41 Cthulhu
81 Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
xx Dostana
62 Duchess, The
46 Dukes, The
63 Eden
xx Eden Lake
66 Elegy
46 Elephant King, The
80 Encounters at the End of the World
26 Everybody Wants to Be Italian
64 Fall, The
69 Fear(s) of the Dark
26 Filth and Wisdom
28 Fireproof
52 First Basket, The
67 Flow: For Love of Water
37 Forever Strong
69 Frontrunners
82 Frozen River
43 Gardens of the Night
73 Girl Cut in Two, A
73 Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
54 Good Dick
30 Guitar, The
84 Happy-Go-Lucky
44 Henry Poole is Here
31 Hounddog
27 House of the Sleeping Beauties
47 How About You
54 Humboldt County
72 I Served the King of England
70 I.O.U.S. A
40 Igor
64 In Search of a Midnight Kiss
78 I've Loved You So Long
63 JCVD
41 Johnny Got His Gun
xx Just Buried
62 Kabluey
63 Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
25 Lake City
78 Last Mistress, The
81 Let the Right One In
xx Lower Learning
63 Man Named Pearl, A
89 Man on Wire
xx Mary
xx Matador, The
62 Mister Foe
84 Momma's Man
51 Morning Light
79 Moving Midway
33 My Name Is Bruce
59 Nights and Weekends
73 Obscene
40 Other End of the Line, The
34 Otto; or Up with Dead People
40 Passengers
xx Phoebe in Wonderland
55 Ping Pong Playa
75 Pool, The
77 Pray the Devil Back to Hell
82 Rachel Getting Married
56 Religulous
32 Repo! The Genetic Opera
xx Roadside Romeo
53 RocknRolla
56 Save Me
74 Secret, A
45 Shoot on Sight
57 Sixty Six
85 Slumdog Millionaire
56 Special
58 Splinter
79 Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
67 Synecdoche, New York
82 Tell No One
64 Thousand Years of Good Prayers, A
57 Towelhead
72 Transsiberian
83 Trouble the Water
43 Tru Loved
83 U2 3D
61 Universe of Keith Haring
84 Up the Yangtze
52 Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived
79 Visitor, The
61 Wackness, The
59 We Are Wizards
55 What Just Happened?
66 When Did You Last See Your Father?

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Under the Sand
WinStar Cinema

Under the Sand reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 86 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.7 out of 10
based on 24 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 14 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Charlotte Rampling, Bruno Cremer, Jacques Nolot, Alexandra Stewart, Pierre Vernier, and Andrée Tainsy

For years, Marie (Rampling) and Jean (Cremer) have happily spent their vacation together in the Landes region of western France. But this summer, while Marie naps on the beach, her husband vanishes without a trace.


GENRE(S): Romance  
WRITTEN BY: Emmanuelle Bernheim
François Ozon
Marcia Romano
Marina de Van
 
DIRECTED BY: François Ozon  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: November 13, 2001 
Video: November 13, 2001 
Theatrical: May 4, 2001 
RUNNING TIME: 96 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: France 
LANGUAGE(S): French (with English subtitles) 

Also known as "Sous le Sable"

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
Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson
Ozon -- has finally hit a home run, and Rampling is his most remarkable RBI.
100
Washington Post Desson Thomson
It's a great pleasure that -- we get to ponder one of the most involving psychological mysteries in recent memory.
Read Full Review
100
Boston Globe Loren King
Mesmerizing and unforgettable.
Read Full Review
91
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
Fascinating, visually gorgeous cinematic study that will frustrate some viewers by its ambiguity.
Read Full Review
90
Variety Derek Elley
An exquisite reflection on personal bereavement.
Read Full Review
90
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Requires careful attention at its abrupt finish. Close concentration on the final shots yields a meaning not possible should a viewer's attention wander or turn away a few moments too soon.
Read Full Review
90
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Powerfully enigmatic study of the fundamental opacity of human relations.
Read Full Review
90
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
It's a role of fierce demands, and Rampling meets them all. In a summer of crass, Rampling is a true class act.
Read Full Review
90
The New York Times Dana Stevens
Mr. Ozon gives the movie to Ms. Rampling, whose performance is like a perfectly executed piano etude, finding precise, impossibly subtle shadings of pleasure, confusion and distress.
Read Full Review
90
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
Charlotte Rampling takes you so far inside the pain of Marie Drillon it leaves you stirred, shaken and a little in awe.
Read Full Review
89
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Manages the most delicate of hat tricks: It gives definition to uncertainty.
Read Full Review
88
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Ozon has crafted a near-perfect film, a mournful, moving kind of cinema poetry.
88
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A movie of introspection and defiance.
Read Full Review
83
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Ozon specializes in dissecting the vulnerability, erotic longing, and garbled intentions with which people regularly rub up against one another.
Read Full Review
80
Village Voice Amy Taubin
Rampling has never been as beautiful, not to mention as emotionally naked, nuanced, and affecting as she is here.
Read Full Review
80
TV Guide Frank Lovece
The film ends with a return to the beach, and one of the most psychologically chilling and expertly photographed shots imaginable.
Read Full Review
80
New York Magazine Peter Rainer
Creepily evocative.
Read Full Review
80
New Times (L.A.) Bill Gallo
A beautifully acted, carefully written meditation on one woman's grief, the enigma of imagination, the persistence of desire and -- let's face it -- the power of denial.
Read Full Review
75
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Rampling's authority over splintered emotions has the force of revelation.
Read Full Review
75
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Unexpectedly subtle cinematic style.
Read Full Review
75
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
A fascinating movie that explores grief from an emotionally truthful angle rarely seen in movies.
Read Full Review
75
San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
This is Rampling's film, and she's never less than surprising, never less than a revelation.
Read Full Review
75
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
It stays in your memory, will not leave you in peace.
Read Full Review
75
New York Post V.A. Musetto
A sensitive and subtle meditation on aging, loss and bereavement.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 14 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

David R. gave it a10:
This is amongst the best of French Cinema. Charlotte rampling gives an exquisite performance of a lover in denial. Worth watching more than once.

John G gave it a10:
Beautifully introspective and subtle. Under The Sand tells the poignant but sad story of a woman struggling to cope with the sudden disappearance of her beloved husband. This film quietly studies the effects of lost love.

Jeff M. gave it a 6:
There's an interesting idea for a movie somewhere in this material, but for the most part it left me cold and generally uninvolved. How much time had passed between his disapearance and the dinner party that she attended and met her eventual lover? What explanation had her friends/lover received regarding his death? If we knew these details, then perhaps their reaction to her state of denial would have had more purpose to it.

Paula W. gave it a 9:
Great stuff. Charlotte Rampling is brilliant as a woman whose sanity falters under the strain of grief and uncertainty after her husband disappears one day on a beach in southwestern France. A film packed with style and genuine emotion.

Herschel T. gave it an 8:
It's a painful movie to watch, which is to its credit, but the casting and realism are a "10."

Robert B. gave it a 7:
I'm not quite sure why all of these critics rate this movie so highly. I think this appeals mostly to the 40 over crowd. I'm 26, so it wasn't too entertaining on a Saturday night.

Gregg V. gave it a 10:
Fascinating. Who says there aren't any good parts for "older" women?

Read more user comments...

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: MLB | Spore | iPhone 3G | Paris Hilton | Antivirus Software | GPS | Recipes | Shwayze | NFL

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use