Land
Focus Features | Release Date: February 12, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
14
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Film ThreatSabina Dana PlasseFeb 9, 2021
Wright provides a film of hope and faith with extreme, challenging, and harsh realities and presents them with flawless character and a connection to nature and its healing properties. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeFeb 1, 2021
Bless Wright for paring Land down to a beautiful haiku, and for delivering a performance that’s ambiguous and understated in all the right ways. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenFeb 1, 2021
Without a drop of self-congratulatory "enlightenment," Land occupies a wild terrain of ineffable tenderness. Read full review
83
The Film StageDan MeccaFeb 1, 2021
Wright the filmmaker wrings out one of Wright the actor’s career-best performances. Read full review
80
The New York TimesGlenn KennyFeb 11, 2021
Wright’s movie is ambitious (that location! that weather!), but not grandiose. Its storytelling economy helps make it credible and eventually moving. Read full review
80
Total FilmJane CrowtherFeb 2, 2021
An end-game disclosure that seems too neat a plot turn can be forgiven for the elegant way Wright and Birchir play it and the buoyant note of catharsis and hope that Land ends on. Read full review
75
Original-CinKim HughesMar 5, 2021
But what lands with Land is underwhelming; not quite a disappointment but considerably less than what was hoped for given Wright’s professional toolkit and the endless possibilities a subject as complex as profound grief offers. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonFeb 25, 2021
Wright is perfect, and Edee is an interesting character for her to play, but it’s fair to say that when Bichir first appears he livens up the film considerably. They work well together, and there is an economy of words between the characters that tests both actors’ ability to communicate visually. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 17, 2021
Land is both a tribute to the triumph of the human spirit and an examination of the difficulties of setting aside modern conveniences for primitive survival. It also represents an announcement by Wright that her first feature foray behind the camera is unlikely to be her last. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 11, 2021
Despite that not-intriguing title and some late developments that come precariously close to piling on the sentimentality, this is ultimately a breathtakingly beautiful, stark and deeply human story about love and loss, and the extreme measures some will take to numb their pain. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanFeb 9, 2021
There are corners of this quiet little film — less a plot-driven narrative than a two-person character study — that feel powerfully true, in ways that surprise. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoFeb 1, 2021
Even as the vast landscape around them seems to recall the insignificance of one person against the beauty of Mother Nature, Land suggests that isolation isn’t the answer and connection is what matters. It’s a smart, moving piece of work, hampered a bit by a rushed final act that feels somewhat manipulative but confidently acted throughout. Read full review
70
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganFeb 1, 2021
Wright’s moving performance and some genuine heart-felt and -breaking moments amid all this natural majesty make Land a journey worth taking. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyMary SollosiFeb 1, 2021
What does come through are the good intentions of everyone involved. There's a great sincerity here, even in the schmaltzier bits, demonstrating a real belief in the humanity on display — however contrived the vehicle for it. Read full review
67
The PlaylistJessica KiangFeb 1, 2021
Despite some pretty vistas and a typically watchable performance from Wright, Land proffers rather too tidy a reiteration of things the movies taught us long ago, about how embracing life means embracing pain and how it’s only through connecting to others that we can truly know ourselves. Read full review
65
TheWrapElizabeth WeitzmanFeb 1, 2021
It would be nice to see Wright work from a stronger script next time, but she rises above the limitations admirably. Read full review
65
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaFeb 1, 2021
Tearful confessions and big dramatic beats fail when contrasted with the emotions that swell up from the unblemished beauty of the landscape. It ultimately left me cold and feeling as if Land‘s central drama was unable to compete with nature. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 15, 2021
The acting is superb and spare, as you might expect. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangFeb 11, 2021
Land is a movie of hard truths that go down a little too easily, a story as terse but never as elemental as its title. Read full review
58
IndieWireKate ErblandFeb 1, 2021
While Wright, making her feature directorial debut with tough material, exhibits an appealing unfussiness, so much of Land is painful not for its subject matter, but because of its predictability. Read full review
50
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiFeb 12, 2021
Wright is relaxed and almost meditative as she takes in the beauty of the horizon, and her simple directing captures the majesty of nature. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiFeb 11, 2021
In the final moments of the film, when the last piece of this very lovely looking landscape puzzle is placed, I couldn’t help but feel that the film was a missed opportunity for something more intriguing, profound. Read full review
50
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonFeb 11, 2021
For all its gorgeous visuals, comforting score, and strong non-verbal performances, there’s just not quite enough there at the script level to make Land‘s broader points, well, land. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubBeatrice LoayzaFeb 11, 2021
With her square-jawed beauty and exacting gaze, Wright brings intelligence and dignity to her character’s self-imposed martyrdom. It’s a weighty performance from the routinely strong actor. Maybe too weighty: Even in her blunders, Edee is solemn and deliberate. Read full review
50
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiFeb 9, 2021
In Land, actress Robin Wright’s directorial debut, the sad, isolated feelings that come with bereavement saturate the story, but the film has surprisingly very little to say about grief. Read full review
50
Slant MagazinePat BrownFeb 2, 2021
The film’s overtly non-specific title is surely meant to suggest some kind of pared-down elementality, but, in the end, it mostly just reflects the story’s lack of definable character. Read full review
45
Paste MagazineJacob OllerFeb 1, 2021
What’s delivered is a flat drama with some admittedly striking nature photography, though the biggest survival struggle becomes that of your own attention span. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Simran HansJun 6, 2021
Wright is sympathetic and believable, but we never truly get a sense of Edee or her desires outside the bounds of her loss. Read full review
40
EmpirePamela HutchinsonJun 3, 2021
In her directorial debut, Robin Wright boldly strikes out for new territory, but the film is all too conventionally fenced in, lacking a narrative as compelling as its own dramatic Wyoming scenery. Read full review
40
CineVueMatthew AndersonFeb 2, 2021
A lacklustre, clichéd and at times wholly unbelievable film. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyFeb 1, 2021
Land will give you a craving to be in the great outdoors, maybe before it’s even over. Read full review
40
The GuardianBenjamin LeeFeb 1, 2021
There’s just not enough here to make it a worthwhile retread through familiar territory, proof of Wright’s basic competency as a director but nothing more. Read full review
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