| 100 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Desmond Ryan
Remarkable movie.
|
| 100 |
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
A beautiful and haunting film that tells this story, and then tells another subterranean story about the seasons of a marriage.
|
| 100 |
Boston Globe
Jay Carr
A grand, dark, grave, severe piece of first-rate cinema.
|
| 91 |
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
Leconte's signature on the film alone makes it worth seeing.
|
| 91 |
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
The subtle selectivity of Leconte's eye, how he moves with great control from gesture to gesture, is matched by the disciplined intensity of the performances.
|
| 90 |
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
It's a kind of 18th-century "Dead Man Walking" but with that earlier film's foreground arguments against capital punishment pushed to the background here.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
Has the resonance, eloquence and formal rigor of a piece of great literature.
|
| 80 |
Time
Richard Corliss
Binoche is especially subtle and radiant in another splendid drama from Leconte.
|
| 80 |
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
Mr. Leconte seems at last to have anchored his cinematic gifts to a story worth caring about.
|
| 80 |
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
Faraldo's most engrossing and inventive script, alternately serious and comic, is beautifully realized by Binoche, Auteuil and Kusturica, all of whom reveal a nobility of spirit and stylish gallantry so cherished by the French.
|
| 80 |
Chicago Reader
Fred Camper
Bosnian-born director Emir Kusturica delivers a superb performance as the prisoner, a brutish cipher who gradually reveals his humanity, and the delicate lighting often produces silhouetted faces that evoke the ultimate incomprehensibility of human emotion.
|
| 80 |
Film.com
Elizabeth Weitzman
Definitely worth a chance: although everyone in this fog-shrouded setting makes grand sacrifices, all you'll lose are a few tears.
|
| 80 |
Washington Post
Rita Kempley
A compelling French Canadian drama.
|
| 80 |
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
For the director, Mr. Leconte, and for the usually volcanic Mr. Auteuil, the quiet, cumulative power of this film is a striking departure from the dazzling energy of their previous collaboration in "Girl on the Bridge."
|
| 75 |
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
Celebrates a larger-than-life heroism that is, sadly, all too rare.
|
| 75 |
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Leconte reconfirms his growing importance to French cinema with this precisely crafted, marvelously acted drama, which makes a powerful statement on capital punishment.
|
| 75 |
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Has its sluggish stretches, but the superb level of acting is more than ample compensation.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Wesley Morris
The director has concocted a tragedy that actually feels tragic.
|
| 75 |
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
It doesn't get much more romantic than this.
|
| 70 |
TV Guide
Steve Simels
A genuinely heartbreaking, romantic film based on a true story; frankly, if it doesn't make you cry, we don't want to know you.
|
| 67 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
Ppaque and not hugely satisfying.
|
| 63 |
Mr. Showbiz
Michael Atkinson
Accomplished, middlebrow costume-drama entertainment. It's not so simple that it could be mistaken for the work of, say, Lasse Hallström, and yet it's not so sophisticated that audiences of "Chocolat" would be mystified.
|
| 60 |
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
Leconte films in an austere yet invigorated style; the action never settles into stiff tableaux.
|
| 50 |
Village Voice
Edward Crouse
Far from terrible, Leconte's latest movie suggests the work of a slightly hip preacher.
|
| 50 |
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
It's impossible to shake the feeling that these are merely actors -- albeit good ones.
|
| 50 |
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
As stunning to look at as "Girl on the Bridge" or indeed any of his others, but it lacks the distilled intensity — and, surprisingly for Leconte, the wit.
|
| 30 |
Salon.com
Charles Taylor
It's not badly made, but it's a drag. Leconte's virtues can't overcome the plodding glumness that prevails.
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