Advanced Search Beta »
Basic Search Fields
Alias Betty
Metascore
73 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 22 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 22
  3. Negative: 1 out of 22
view
per page
  1. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    100
    In today's cynical cinematic climate, there's something beautiful in Miller's simple poetic justice.
  2. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Chuck Wilson
    90
    The last-minute details of plot can't compete with the frightening intensity of Kiberlain's and Garcia's performances, which trace, with brilliant precision, the exhausting mix of brutality and grace inherent in the mother-daughter relationship.
  3. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    90
    A confidently adroit thriller that captures a comprehensive sense of life in an edgy, multicultural and economically diverse Paris. The large cast couldn't be better, but the film belongs to Kiberlain.
  4. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    90
    Such an accomplished piece of filmmaking that it interweaves enough characters and themes to fill three movies.
  5. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    88
    What really makes Alias Betty stand out, even from good recent French ensemble films like "Eight Women" and "Venus Beauty Institute," is that ingenious, Rendell-derived story. To kidnap an old phrase, it's a corker.
  6. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    83
    A nifty, entwined, ultimately gripping adaptation of British crime writer Ruth Rendell's novel ''The Tree of Hands'' by French director Claude Miller.
  7. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    80
    This quiet French thriller gets to the heart of motherhood, and then pays off with comfort and calm.
  8. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Leslie Camhi
    80
    Infusing Rendell's intrigue with warmth and humor, Miller makes the film's sometimes mechanical and giddy narrative into something grander -- a meditation on maternity as a form of inspired madness.
  9. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Gregory Weinkauf
    80
    What's wonderful about director Claude Miller's adaptation of Ruth Rendell's novel "The Tree of Hands" is its grand capacity for compassion and complexity.
  10. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    80
    Mr. Miller tells several interlocking stories with such daring and intensity that you sense he could go on indefinitely, spinning one terrific yarn off another.
    All this critic's reviews
  11. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    It's one of the season's most original and energetic movies.
  12. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    75
    Despite a contrived ending that brings together all the film's characters, Alias Betty is inventive filmmaking.
  13. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Curiel
    75
    Somehow, it all works -- even if Miller relies on a plot that meanders a bit and loses some of its luster.
  14. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    70
    If the ending isn't conventionally happy, it's certainly deeply satisfying.
  15. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    70
    Complicated thriller that gets more interesting as its complications pile up.
  16. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    70
    A lot goes on, and it doesn't always make sense. But the cast embodies Rendell's ability to incorporate shrewd observations on human behavior into the framework of a crime story, and Miller has a great eye for the places on the Paris outskirts where the lives of haves and have-nots intersect.
  17. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    70
    As long as Miller simply crosscuts between the machinations of the three mothers, the sociological and psychological parallels are intriguing, but when they're forced to share the same story line, the contrivances and coincidences begin to seem fussily elaborate.
  18. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    67
    Makes it pretty difficult to tell the difference between good mothers and bad.
  19. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    63
    Of the several threads interwoven here, only one is riveting, thanks to the performance of Sandrine Kiberlain as Betty.
  20. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Janice Page
    63
    Miller is certainly faithful to the spirit of Rendell's psychologically probing, class-dissecting novels, even if his probing doesn't go nearly as deep and his storytelling isn't as compelling.
  21. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    60
    Makes for interesting, rather than emotionally compelling viewing.
  22. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    20
    The good news might be that Huppert wasn't available for Alias Betty, but the bad news is that it didn't stop France from exporting yet one more cold, pretentious, thoroughly dislikable study in sociopathy.
prev next
Page:
  • 1