The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
  • Studio: Tartan
  • Release Date: Apr 26, 2006
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu Image
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Metascore
84 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 30 Critics What's this?

User Score
7.8 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 28 Ratings

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0 out of 10
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  • Summary: Anyone who has waited for treatment in an emergency room or chafed under the less than devoted care of a disinterested doctor will recognize Mr. Lazarescu's dilemma. A 60-ish widower, living alone in Bucharest with his cats, he feels sick enough one evening to call an ambulance. This is the beginning of his Dantesque odyssey deep into the bowels of a big city medical establishment. It's a story that could take place anywhere and Mr. Lazarescu could be your next-door neighbor – or he could be you. (Tartan Films)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 30
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 30
  3. Negative: 1 out of 30
  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    Like "United 93" and the work of the Dardenne brothers, it lives entirely in the moment, seeing what happens as it happens, drawing no conclusions, making no speeches, creating no artificial dramatic conflicts, just showing people living one moment after another, as they must.
  2. Empire
    Reviewed by: David Parkinson
    80
    Long, but engrossing and frequently enraging drama that not only exposes the flaws in the Romanian health service, but also in modern humanity.
  3. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    60
    Needlessly long, visually drab and not just a foreign-language film, with English subtitles, but a film that's ostensibly foreign to our experience. That said, there are compelling reasons to see it.
    All this critic's reviews
  4. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    38
    It's supposed to be about a Kafkaesque experience. Instead, it IS a Kafkaesque experience. Why are we here? Is everything absurd? Is anyone in charge?

See all 30 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 13
  3. Negative: 3 out of 13
  1. BogdanP.
    10
    The drama on the screen is no more powerful than the real drama. Yet the true power of the movie is that it portrays reality as no one believes it could be. Deeply human. Sad nonetheless.… Expand
  2. CraigS.
    10
    Best statement on humanity or lack of humanity that I've seen. It will help turn most viewers into beings who care more for each other.
  3. JenniferM.
    6
    I, too, didn't get the humour in it. I found it painfully realistic and bleak. Great performances and highly original though.
  4. VerbalCant
    2
    Watched this scrunched up at the back on a cinema during a film festival. I have never wished anyone in the world dead until half way through this movie. Two and a half hours - were all the Romanian editors on strike? Yes I know life is bleak and death is lonely and futile, but a little part of me did not have to die in the cinema for me to know that.… Expand

See all 13 User Reviews

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