X
  • 2014
  • TV-PG
  • Kino Lorber
  • 1 h 48 m
  • 2014
  • TV-PG
  • Kino Lorber
  • 1 h 48 m

Summary In the English countryside, the life of three couples is disturbed by a character we shall constantly hear about but never see: the enigmatic George Riley. When general practitioner Dr. Colin inadvertently tells his wife Kathryn that his patient George Riley does not have more than a few months to live, he doesn't know that Riley was Kat...

Directed By: Alain Resnais

Written By: Alan Ayckbourn, Laurent Herbiet, Jean-Marie Besset, Alain Resnais

  • 2014
  • TV-PG
  • Kino Lorber
  • 1 h 48 m
  • 2014
  • TV-PG
  • Kino Lorber
  • 1 h 48 m

Life of Riley

Metascore Generally Favorable Based on 9 Critic Reviews
70
User Score Mixed or Average Based on 4 User Ratings
5.5
My Score
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Where to Watch

Summary In the English countryside, the life of three couples is disturbed by a character we shall constantly hear about but never see: the enigmatic George Riley. When general practitioner Dr. Colin inadvertently tells his wife Kathryn that his patient George Riley does not have more than a few months to live, he doesn't know that Riley was Kat...

Directed By: Alain Resnais

Written By: Alan Ayckbourn, Laurent Herbiet, Jean-Marie Besset, Alain Resnais

Where to Watch

Top Cast

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 9 Critic Reviews
70
56% Positive
5 Reviews
44% Mixed
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 9 Critic Reviews
70
56% Positive
5 Reviews
44% Mixed
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
100
Oct 24, 2014
Everything in Life of Riley, Resnais makes plain, is a contrivance. Much of the joy and beauty of the movie comes from letting the levels of contrivance fall into place, as with some Rube Goldberg contraption, creating a parallel abstract narrative to the more conventional semi-farcical one unfolding on screen.
By Glenn Kenny FULL REVIEW
88
Sep 2, 2014
Alain Resnais's overpoweringly beautiful final film dares to push through the ghosts that inhabit the present, standing between the pessimism of an ill-spent past and the optimism of an undefined future.
By Chuck Bowen FULL REVIEW
80
Oct 28, 2014
Resnais's lightheartedness is infectious as he dispenses with the cinematic "reality" he never quite trusted, shooting the six-person farce on obvious sets, with curtains for doors and flat theatrical lighting.
By Michael Atkinson FULL REVIEW
63
Oct 22, 2014
Filmed on abstract sets, it’s full of playful touches, such as lines delivered in front of a screen that looks like a comic-strip panel, and glimpses of a mole puppet popping out from a fake lawn.
By Farran Smith Nehme FULL REVIEW
60
Mar 5, 2015
A postmodern experiment in both form and function, Life of Riley's rigidity can at times feel like its restricting its actors, leaving them unable to treads the boards with the same authority they would on the stage.
By Patrick Gamble FULL REVIEW
60
Oct 21, 2014
Shot when the director was 91 and finished just before he died in March, Alain Resnais’s third adaptation of an Alan Ayckbourn play is his gentlest attempt at using the artifice of theater to affirm the reality of imagination.
FULL REVIEW
50
Oct 21, 2014
Where You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet added layers of meta-reflection to plays (by Jean Anouilh) that are terrific in their own right, Life Of Riley struggles in vain to find cinematic value in one of Alan Ayckbourn’s lesser efforts.
By Mike D'Angelo FULL REVIEW

User Reviews

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User Score
Mixed or Average Based on 4 User Ratings
5.5
0% Positive
0 Ratings
100% Mixed
4 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings

User Reviews

 View All
User Score
Mixed or Average Based on 4 User Ratings
5.5
0% Positive
0 Ratings
100% Mixed
4 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings

There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.

Details

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Production Company F Comme Film, France 2 Cinéma, Solivagus Productions, Canal+, Ciné+, France Télévisions, Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC), Sofica Manon 3, Cinémage 8, La Banque Postale Image 6
Release Date Oct 24, 2014
Duration 1 h 48 m
Rating TV-PG
Genres
Website http://www.crest-inter.co.jp/aishite/
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Awards

Berlin International Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 4 Nominations
Big Fandom Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema
• 1 Nomination

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