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In My Country
Metascore
44 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 27 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 27
  3. Negative: 6 out of 27
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  1. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    88
    A stirring, large-souled movie.
  2. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    88
    Sobering and important.
  3. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    Boorman treats this moving, important subject with restraint, tact, and candid views of horrors suffered by the nation.
  4. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    70
    A potent, moving, liberal-minded docudrama.
  5. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    63
    There is something not quite right about the film itself.
  6. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    63
    Boorman's troubles usually come from going over the top (atop Exorcist II, there's always Zardoz). But this is one of his few misfires that almost anyone would call tepid.
  7. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Stephen Cole
    63
    Although In My Country is charged with moments of grace and feeling, the film is ultimately betrayed by the clunky Jackson-Binoche romance.
  8. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    60
    It's essential viewing for anyone interested in the state of post-Apartheid South Africa.
  9. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    58
    In My Country doesn't so much explore as use the tragedy of black South Africa to give its heroine a righteous slap of nobility.
  10. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    50
    The charisma and hard work by his two leads allows Boorman to succeed beyond all expectations.
  11. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    50
    Would be better if it weren't so preachy.
  12. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Ruthe Stein
    50
    Lacks compelling narrative.
  13. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    50
    At its best when Anna confronts her tangled Afrikaaner legacy and when it brings the heretical notion of forgiveness up front, where a non-African audience can come to grips with it.
  14. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    50
    Ends badly, with a clumsy, nihilistic coda that leaves one uncertain how to feel about the story, confused as to what point has been made and not at all convinced that the new South Africa will be that much different from the old one.
  15. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    50
    A disappointingly blunt, monochrome work.
  16. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    50
    In My Country stands closest to "Hotel Rwanda," a similarly clumsy yet inescapably moving effort to confront the brutal consequences of colonial oppression.
  17. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Melissa Levine
    50
    A clunky, obvious film, it makes the mistake of asking drama to do what documentary should.
  18. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    50
    Boorman's stars Juliette Binoche and Samuel L. Jackson are valiant - even impressive - but they cannot rescue this grueling film or its mechanical plot.
  19. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    50
    High-minded but hopelessly wooden film.
  20. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marrit Ingman
    40
    There is great material here and ample food for thought, but the presentation is lacking.
  21. Variety
    Reviewed by: Derek Elley
    40
    An unquestionably sincere but dramatically stillborn outing by veteran John Boorman.
  22. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Jessica Winter
    30
    Boorman's bathetic tourism is unconscionable for a subject of this magnitude; for an infinitely superior account of this chapter of South African history, seek out the documentary "Long Night's Journey Into Day."
  23. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    30
    In their desire to humanize the big story, director John Boorman and screenwriter Ann Peacock ... have resorted to groan-inducing cliches and clunky narrative.
  24. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    30
    This romantic melodrama ... doesn't even get to first base.
  25. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: M. E. Russell
    25
    Social justice is never an excuse for bad art. In fact, one could argue that a really bad movie about a really important subject is twice the artistic crime -- because, however well-intentioned, it trivializes human suffering while squandering a teaching opportunity.
  26. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    20
    Any social good the film might do gets lost in a soupy morass of histrionics, clumsy storytelling, overripe dialogue, and rampant didacticism.
  27. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    10
    It's a bad idea done disastrously.
    All this critic's reviews
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