The Ignorant Fairies
Metascore
69 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 16
  3. Negative: 1 out of 16
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  1. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    90
    This graceful and wise film moves to its denouement with subtlety and, at its end, strikes a note that seems just right for all that has gone before.
  2. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Patrick Z. McGavin
    88
    A work about memory and loss, His Secret Life becomes a forum of Antonia's liberation of consciousness and feeling, but there are too many contradictory moods sharing the same space, resulting in a tentativeness and uncertainty.
  3. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Chuck Wilson
    80
    Moving and vibrant Italian-language film.
  4. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: David Ehrenstein
    80
    Keeping the mood dry, Ozpetek and his very resourceful leading lady keep the proceedings from turning into an Almodóvar version of Mary Worth.
  5. Variety
    Reviewed by: David Rooney
    80
    The well-structured film goes beyond issues of sexuality, giving nuanced consideration to broader questions of love and loss, family and friendship, trust, lies and deception.
  6. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    80
    A movie that grows better by the minute.
  7. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    75
    Startlingly original comedy-drama.
  8. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    75
    It's a soapy, simplistic, but surprisingly affecting ambisexual melodrama that plays a little like Pedro Almodovar without the surreal frills.
  9. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    70
    Solid and engrossing melodrama.
  10. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    70
    His Secret Life's languid pace and general aimlessness keep getting in the way.
  11. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Laura Sinagra
    70
    It's this memory-as-identity obviation that gives Secret Life its intermittent unease, reaffirming that long-held illusions are indeed reality, and that erasing them recasts the self. And it's this existential gerrymandering that's most compelling.
  12. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    70
    The acting is impeccable, and the intentions are serious and noble, but the affection it elicits stops short of love, and its coziness never risks true intimacy.
  13. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Marta Barber
    63
    Even the graceful ending, one that lifts the film a notch, is startling. But at the very least, His Secret Life will leave you thinking.
  14. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    63
    Though predictable and a bit of a soap opera, Ferzan Ozpetek's Italian drama is saved by the tremendous appeal of its stars, Margherita Buy and Stefano Accorsi.
  15. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Edward Guthmann
    50
    Pure of intention and passably diverting, His Secret Life is light, innocuous and unremarkable.
  16. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    38
    Director Ferzan Ozpetek's film doesn't break any new ground; rather, it recycles every cliché about gays in what is essentially an extended soap opera.

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