63
Metascore
7 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The PlaylistElena LazicThe PlaylistElena LazicBreillat’s film is devastating because it exposes at the heart of a seemingly normal family a black hole where empathy should be.
- The ambivalence of it all is a compelling force. And even if everyone is made to look pathetic at one point, we can safely say this is Breillat’s version of the old saying: “Love conquers all”.
- 80VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeIt proves most daring in the ways the film departs from its more conventionally moralistic source, and especially in Breillat’s refusal to call either party a parasite.
- 75Slant MagazineChuck BowenSlant MagazineChuck BowenThe film somehow feels tight, open and leisurely, and cloaked in dread all at once.
- 60The TelegraphRobbie CollinThe TelegraphRobbie CollinWhile the film never shocks it almost always compels, and Breillat crafts some images that keep tingling in the mind long after they’ve faded from sight.
- 50Screen DailyWendy IdeScreen DailyWendy IdeDespite the suitably transgressive nature of the subject matter, Catherine Breillat’s first film in a decade is an oddly muted affair: uncomfortable, certainly, but lacking the disruptive, confrontational jab and genuine shock factor of her earlier pictures.
- 40The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawBreillat’s movie rolls along capably enough while the affair is in progress, but it’s tested to destruction when things go wrong. She is not good at delivering the iciness crucial to the story’s third act, happier as she is with the sunny, languorous sexiness of the amour fou.