The Children of the Century
Metascore
59 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 15 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
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  1. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    88
    A romance incandescent, a fiery pageant of l'amour fou. Whatever its historical transgressions, it opens up a vein and lets life and blood pour out.
  2. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    80
    In scope, ambition and accomplishment, Children of the Century therefore takes Kurys' career to a whole new level.
  3. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Marta Barber
    75
    In between all the emotional seesawing, it's hard to figure the depth of these two literary figures, and even the times in which they lived. But they fascinate in their recklessness.
  4. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    75
    The film's appeal has a lot to do with the casting of Juliette Binoche as Sand, who brings to the role her pale, dark beauty and characteristic warmth.
  5. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Andy Klein
    70
    For all of the heroine's shockingly "modern" lifestyle choices, the thrust of the film is remarkably old-fashioned. It embraces the notion that you can have only a single great love in a lifetime...and that's if you're lucky.
  6. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    70
    Though well dressed and well made, ultimately falls prey to the contradiction that afflicts so many movies about writers. What makes them so fascinating, so representative, cannot really be shown on screen.
  7. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    63
    Inexplicable human bondage is a literary staple of film as well as literature, but Kurys ("Entre Nous"), usually so sure-handed with her actors, has trouble making this bond compelling.
  8. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    63
    No one around this beauty-first rendition of these addled artisans and their brief, obsessive affair really understands the attraction, so most people just get out of the way.
  9. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Rich Cline
    60
    The art direction and costumes are gorgeous and finely detailed, and Kurys' direction is clever and insightful. Even so, it feels very, very long.
  10. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Leslie Camhi
    60
    It does best when it leaves behind hothouse literary discussions and closes in on these two legendary behemoths, battling for sexual supremacy.
  11. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    60
    As a literary bodice ripper this is better than average, partly because of its glimpses of early-19th-century bohemianism in France and Italy but mostly because Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel manage to keep the story hot and unpredictable.
  12. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    50
    Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel have great chemistry together as the lovers, and the scenes of their lovemaking and frequent battles bring the movie to life. Outside of those moments, however, the film is too stagey, talky - and long - for its own good.
  13. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Frank Lovece
    40
    Never has the adage "You can't help who you fall in love with" been more lavishly illustrated than in this historical drama.
  14. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    40
    Juliette Binoche is the only reason to see Diane Kurys' florid, incoherent movie.
  15. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    40
    A generally old-fashioned costumer that runs out of gas even faster than does the tempestuous love affair between writer George Sand and poet Alfred de Musset that it so devotedly recounts.

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