Love and Death on Long Island

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

A highly original Death in Venice-scented comedy drama written and directed with flair by British feature novice Richard Kwietniowski.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Hurt gives an astonishingly sensitive and funny performance as the bedazzled intellectual, and first-time filmmaker Kwietniowski unfolds the story with an unfailing blend of humor and compassion.

New York Magazine David Denby

Writer-director Richard Kwietniowski has never made a feature before, but this debut effort is a triumph, a buoyant and elegant achievement -- romantic and ruminative yet always precise, a comedy of longing propelled by a strong current of satirical observation.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

An unpredictable, often funny, always winning film, Love And Death On Long Island is filled with low-key humor and sharp observations about the state of art at the close of the millennium.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

A witty, canny meditation on the power of pop culture in general and the rationalizations of cinephilia and film criticism in particular.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Love and Death on Long Island is sharp, sophisticated and completely delicious, a purposeful comedy that focuses on the power of screen images to uproot lives and the poignancy of amour fou, totally mad love.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

These opening scenes of Love and Death on Long Island are funny and touching, and Hurt brings a dignity to Giles De'Ath that transcends any snickering amusement at his infatuation.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

John Hurt is simply wonderful -- acerbic, funny and heartbreaking.

Newsweek David Ansen

The first-time writer-director, Englishman Richard Kwietniowski, has adapted Gilbert Adair's novel with wit, economy and a delicate understanding that the funniest comedies are played with dead seriousness.

Variety David Rooney

This is arguably Hurt's best role in years, and he bites into it with relish, managing to seem both manipulative and vulnerable, dour and droll at the same time.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

The height of drollery, a cheeky ode to the liberating power of popular culture, and a fascinating look at an old dog learning some new tricks.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) John Haslett Cuff

It is a slight, charming, filmic oddity, well acted and intelligently written

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Despite the many laughs Love and Death offers, it never takes cheap shots. It has a vibrant, beating heart - and that makes the comedy all the more worthwhile.

San Francisco Examiner Barbara Shulgasser

The script, by director Richard Kwietnioski and adapted from the Gilbert Adair novel, is poignant and well constructed.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

Directed with style and wit by London filmmaker Richard Kwietniowski, who makes his feature debut here, Love and Death is an off-kilter romantic comedy.

Slate David Edelstein

First-time director Richard Kwietniowski has fun with the collision of high and low culture, and he does elegant work.

The New Yorker Daphne Merkin

Directed with an original touch by Richard Kwietniowski, the movie is less about the nature of homoerotic longing than about the closeted nature of love itself.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

With Love and Death on Long Island, writer-director Richard Kwietniowski makes a very pleasing feature debut.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The interactions between the raspy-voiced Hurt and various shallowly cheerful Americans are genuinely charming and dynamic.