Water
Metascore
77 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 25 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 25
  3. Negative: 0 out of 25
view
per page
  1. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    88
    The writer-director doesn't raise her voice, even as she firmly condemns the injustice. Water seduces us with its beauty and sorrow.
  2. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    100
    Profound, passionate and overflowing with incomparable beauty, Water, like the prior two films in director Deepa Mehta's "Elements" trilogy, celebrates the lives of women who resist marginalization by Indian society.
  3. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    100
    A film with the epic scale and fearless common-sense vision of Water is a revelation.
  4. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    90
    Exquisite storytelling, acting and visuals.
  5. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Jeannette Catsoulis
    90
    An exquisite film about the institutionalized oppression of an entire class of women and the way patriarchal imperatives inform religious belief.
  6. Variety
    Reviewed by: Eddie Cockrell
    90
    Deftly balancing epic sociopolitical scope with intimate human emotions, all polished to a high technical gloss, Deepa Mehta's Water is a profoundly moving drama.
  7. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Bill Gallo
    100
    This work of gorgeous fury, about the virtual imprisonment of millions of Hindu widows in the years before independence, transforms Mehta's feminist rage into an eloquent testament to the hunger for freedom.
  8. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    90
    Water, set in 1930s India, is something pretty rare in the world of movies: an artistic muckraker. It is superb and strange at once, a discreet and self-disciplined attack dog of a movie.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 23 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 9
  3. Negative: 1 out of 9
  1. BarbaraK.
    2
    Tragedy as a perfume commercial.
  2. RiK.
    5
    Attempts at creating an emotionally manipulative film were transparent. With a story that should have put a knot in my throat, I was left with only a sense of disgust with how the film was (unfittingly) made to look "beautiful". It's a very sad state of affairs when a formulaic quasi art film like this is the kind that gets P&A dollars to somehow break through, while there are so many genius American indies that we never get to see on the big screen, not to mention all the great foreign films that don't have to resort to cheesy love stories and "stylish" trick cinematography. It's even sadder that this film has received such a high meta score - is what is screened in American theaters these days so bad that "Water" is really so refreshing??? I believe this film is a crime to cinema. A ridiculous waste of gobs of money (production and marketing) only to ruin a truly interesting subject matter & potentially amazing story.… Full Review »
  3. PrudenceK.
    10
    Easily the funniest and saddest films of the year! I don't know. Sometimes I didn't know what was going on, I am fluent in Hindi though... so that was cool! I thought it was good when they cut her hair, it was so sad! I cried at that part. Oh! And I loved when they played with the dog, that was so cute! But it was mean when they cut her hair. But that lady was so mean! She was big! And she was obsessed with that bird! It was so weird! Cool film!… Full Review »
See all user reviews »