The movie satisfies for an hour, but never quite persuades that its subject is worth two.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
The result is an experience that, even as it feels a bit familiar, is nonetheless engrossing and satisfying.
Chicago Reader by Andrea Gronvall
In the films of Swedish director Jan Troell (The Emigrants, The New Land), ordinary lives assume epic dimensions, and this drama, based on the experiences of his wife's protofeminist grandmother, doesn't sugarcoat the hardships of the early 1900s.
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
There's something old-fashioned about Everlasting Moments. Although the shots are beautifully composed, they are classically represented. Both the filmmaking methods and the storytelling are uncomplicated.
Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern
This exquisite film by the Swedish master Jan Troell is about seeing clearly, and fearlessly. It's also about subdued passion, the birth of an artist and a woman's struggle to live her own life.
New York Daily News by Joe Neumaier
This unhurried, novelistic movie is worth looking into.
The Hollywood Reporter by Michael Rechtshaffen
An affecting film that manages to find glimmers of beauty in the encroaching bleakness, and coaxing richly dimensional performances which, like Maria's photographs, transcend the conventionally black and white.
The A.V. Club by Tasha Robinson
Heiskanen plays her layers beautifully, alternately revealing a talented artist stymied by poverty and marital problems, and a woman fiercely devoted to family first.
Artistically on a plane with or near the vet filmmaker's best work, this period drama about a woman slowly discovering her metier is an artisanal creation par excellence.