61
Metascore
25 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttBeautifully acted and written so its themes are touched upon glancingly rather than with full force.
- 70VarietyRobert KoehlerVarietyRobert KoehlerMonica Ali's elegant and critically trumpeted debut novel, Brick Lane, about the travails, conflicting emotions and quiet liberation of a Muslim woman in London, is a far lesser thing in its bigscreen transformation.
- 70Village VoiceVillage VoiceAbsorbing enough, moving enough, and visually attractive enough to provide a perfectly acceptable night out at the movies.
- 70The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottCertainly touching, even heart-rending at times, and it mostly steers clear of the didacticism and sentimentality its subject matter often invites. But it never takes the full measure of its modest heroine, and makes her world a bit too small.
- 63TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghTV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghRestrained and decorous to a fault.
- 60New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNew York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierWell-acted and grounded in reality, Brick Lane is never overly emotional, even when it deals with the days after 9/11.
- 58The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonThe A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonBrick Lane comes far too late to be groundbreaking, and tries to do too much to be fully coherent, but its talent for avoiding obvious choices on all fronts, narratively and stylistically, make it worth a look.
- 50Los Angeles TimesJan StuartLos Angeles TimesJan StuartBrick Lane has been whittled down from Monica Ali's expansive 2003 novel into a glossy but overly efficient drama that, like Nazneen's husband, is ultimately too ineffectual to make much of a dent.
- 50New York PostKyle SmithNew York PostKyle SmithWraps a sari around the kind of suffering-housewife picture that became a cliché 30 years ago.
- 50Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerChristian Science MonitorPeter RainerFor most of the movie, we feel as trapped as she does, and the lurching narrative seems anything but novelistic.