Metascore

Universal acclaim - based on 14 Critics What's this?

User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 6 Ratings

  • Summary: Set in the 1930's, Gilles' Wife is a haunting tale of love and betrayal in a small mining town on the outskirts of France. (Cinema Guild)
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 14
  3. Negative: 0 out of 14
  1. 90
    You can't imagine a soapier setup, but Gilles' Wife taken on its own terms is a spectacular achievement, a heartbreaking cinematic work that finely balances melodrama, family love story and devastating tragedy.
  2. Reviewed by: Robert Abele
    80
    Suffused with a painterly tenderness and cruelty, the French film Gilles' Wife - based on a 1937 Belgian novel by Madeleine Bourdouxhe - stars the extraordinary actress Emmanuelle Devos.
  3. 80
    All but a silent movie, Frédéric Fonteyne’s strikingly atmospheric film - adapted by Philippe Blasband and Marion Hänsel from a 1937 novel - relies on the extraordinarily mobile face of Emmanuelle Devos to express the pain of a woman who has no language for her inner turmoil.
  4. 80
    An impeccable minimalist drama that's tailored specifically to Devos' expressive capabilities, which say more than the sparse dialogue.

See all 14 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. JH
    7
    The acting and directing are first-rate, but I was unable to suspend my disbelief of a story about a woman who had no courage, so I wasn';t fully engaged by this movie. Expand
  2. richard
    7
    I found this film engrossing but frustrating....in the wife's total compliance.
  3. SherriE.
    6
    That 6 is actually a 9 for technical excellence and a 3 for story. The film is so beautifully photographed, and the acting so fine, that the disappointing story becomes trebly so. Her final decision is so selfish and cruel that it retroactively tainted the preceding 100 minutes. Expand

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