Private Life

Name: Private Life
Genre: Drama
Released: October 5, 2018
Duration: 123 min
Rating: 83
Cast: Denis O'Hare, Desmin Borges, Emily Robinson, Francesca Root-Dodson, Hettienne Park

2018

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 32 Critics

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Ratings

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7.5

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7.5	Your Score
7.5	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Ratings

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Private Life

Movie Details & Credits

Not Rated

Netflix | Release Date: October 5, 2018

Starring: Denis O'Hare, Desmin Borges, Emily Robinson, Francesca Root-Dodson, Hettienne Park, John Carroll Lynch, Kathryn Hahn, Kayli Carter, Lizzy DeClement, Maddie Corman, Mandela Bellamy, Molly Shannon, Paul Giamatti, Siobhan Fallon, Tracee Chimo

Summary: Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) and Richard (Paul Giamatti) are a couple in the throes of infertility who try to maintain their marriage as they descend deeper and deeper into the insular world of assisted reproduction and domestic adoption. After the emotional and economic upheaval of in vitro fertilization, they’re at the end of their middle-agedRachel (Kathryn Hahn) and Richard (Paul Giamatti) are a couple in the throes of infertility who try to maintain their marriage as they descend deeper and deeper into the insular world of assisted reproduction and domestic adoption. After the emotional and economic upheaval of in vitro fertilization, they’re at the end of their middle-aged rope, but when Sadie (Kayli Carter), a recent college drop out, re-enters their life, things begin to look up. [Netflix]… Expand

Director: Tamara Jenkins

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 123 min

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Awards & Rankings

47	#47 Best Movie of 2018

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Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

100

RogerEbert.com - Matt Zoller Seitz

Oct 5, 2018

The film's writer-director, Tamara Jenkins is a brilliant chronicler of upper-middle class white people and their foibles, and her eye for detail is anthropologically exact, empathetic but never begging for sympathy. Read full review

100

The New York Times - A.O. Scott

Oct 4, 2018

Though it is poignant and funny in nearly equal measure, the most remarkable aspect of Private Life may be its lack of noticeable exaggeration. Ms. Jenkins is working at the scale of life, with the confidence that the ordinary, if viewed from the right angle, will provide enough drama and humor to sustain our interest. Read full review

Vanity Fair - K. Austin Collins

Oct 13, 2018

Jenkins can find the humor and bleached-out irony in something as sterile as a hospital’s oppressively white walls—it’s a true talent. Let’s not wait another decade to get more of it. Read full review

TheWrap - Elizabeth Weitzman

Oct 4, 2018

As both writer and director, Jenkins pushes us to rise above judgment by steadfastly refusing to indulge in it herself. Deep empathy suffuses the screen, enveloping every one of the characters. Read full review

Boston Globe - Ty Burr

Oct 3, 2018

A modern comedy-drama in the Woody Allen-Noah Baumbach mold — urban intellectuals talking their lives in circles — but what keeps it from being a live-action New Yorker cartoon is the heart beating away in the script and the performances. At over two hours, it’s long but it’s true. Read full review

Slate - Inkoo Kang

Oct 2, 2018

Private Life is certainly very good at shivving its characters at close range and gutting these dyspeptic, privileged white people when they deserve it. Save for Sadie’s charmed fate, I can’t fault Private Life for nailing what it sets out to accomplish. But its cultural narrowness, however well-expounded, also left me wondering about the trials and tribulations of all the other couples in that waiting room long after we’d seen the last of them. Read full review

Slant Magazine - Sam C. Mac

Sep 26, 2018

Instead of offering a probing, nuanced view of the burgeoning technologies and sciences involved in this relatively new outgrowth of the OBGYN industry, though, Tamara Jenkins uses her setting as fodder for lame and discomfiting physical comedy. Read full review

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User Reviews

froglegs

Oct 29, 2018

Why do brilliant directors get so little work? Tamara Jenkins didn't direct anything since The Savages which came out 2007 and was also really good. Just about every scene is a masterpiece.