Rust and Bone
Metascore
73 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 39 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 33 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 39
  3. Negative: 1 out of 39
view
per page
  1. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    Dec 20, 2012
    100
    Turns out to be one of the most transportingly romantic movies of the year, one that finds the most stirring emotion in struggle rather than in ginned-up melodrama or easy resolution.
  2. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    Dec 20, 2012
    100
    The narrative at the heart of Rust and Bone is a vehicle for sentiment and over-the-top histrionics if ever there was one, but Audiard and his two stars deliver the exact opposite: a film thrillingly raw and essential, life-affirming, sublime.
  3. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    Dec 6, 2012
    100
    Romantic but pitiless, fearlessly emotional as well as edgy, Rust and Bone is a powerhouse.
  4. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    Nov 23, 2012
    100
    One of the year's best films precisely because it can't be boiled down to a message or synopsis. It's an exercise in style that risks trashiness in search of transcendence, and it's a sizzling celebration of the power of music, the power of images, and the electric, destructive power of the human body.
  5. The Playlist
    Reviewed by: Kevin Jagernauth
    Nov 21, 2012
    91
    By the picture's knotty finale, in which Audiard navigates a late-stage twist with ease and emotion, you know you are in the hands of a master who is directing with the confidence and command that few possess.
  6. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: Anthony Lane
    Nov 26, 2012
    90
    Rust and Bone might as well be called "Water and Light"; it glitters and flares with the urge to renew those things - limbs, knuckles, lovemaking, and parental bonds - which are easily fractured and lost.
  7. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    Nov 23, 2012
    90
    Rust and Bone is a strong, emotionally replete experience, and also a tour de force of directorial button pushing. Mr. Audiard is a canny showman, adept at manipulating the audience's feelings and expectations with quick edits and well-chosen songs.
  8. NPR
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    Nov 23, 2012
    90
    Jacques Audiard's Rust and Bone is an unapologetic melodrama rendered in what you might call semi-stylized neo-expressionistic realism, and it works like gangbusters.
  9. Boxoffice Magazine
    Reviewed by: James Rocchi
    Nov 21, 2012
    90
    What Audiard has created here is nothing less than the rare combination of high art and beautiful filmmaking with visceral power and gut-level emotional reality - it's like a symphony of fists, or a brutal assault by angels.
  10. Movieline
    Reviewed by: Lorien Haynes
    Sep 12, 2012
    90
    Physically it is a kick in the teeth, a depiction of poverty, sex and violence which crosses most known codes of acceptability.
  11. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Calvin Wilson
    Jan 11, 2013
    88
    A film that's all the more intriguing for being virtually impossible to categorize.
  12. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Stan Hall
    Jan 10, 2013
    83
    Audiard's craft is still arresting, and the film hums with beauty, vigor and blood.
  13. indieWIRE
    Reviewed by: Eric Kohn
    Nov 23, 2012
    83
    While its main characters are tough-minded, Rust and Bone is itself pure heart.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.9 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 56 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 17
  3. Negative: 1 out of 17
  1. miki00
    10
    Just beautiful! Marion Cotillard really excels in expressing feelings with the less word possible. Audiard mixes love, sex and brutality like it's actually a natural thing. This drama is so down to earth and well acted that you accept every aspect of Ali & Staphanie's tough personality, even if they are not very lovable. They don't try to make you love them, they just tell a story with it's simplicity and all of it's complexity at the same time. Another Audiard and Cotillard home run.… Full Review »
  2. wishmaster
    9
    fascinating, poignant and spectacular life message, Rust and Bone plays with the lives of these people in a way enigmatic, offer to a Marion Cotillard providing her best performance from La Môme.… Full Review »
  3. amboy
    9
    The film is a powerhouse. The emotions it portrays and arouses are raw. The pile-up of bad luck disasters might strain credulity were it not for the performances by Cotillard and Schoenarts, She will win most kudos because she must act with prosthetic limbs, but it's his work that really is remarkable. He is a man who continually disappoints and redeems himself--it's brilliant work.… Full Review »
See all user reviews »