50
Too bad the film ultimately fails to explore [provocative questions], falling instead to cliches.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
70
While it's true that you can't pack as much psychological detail into a movie as you can into a novel, director Philip Saville and screenwriter Adrian Hodges bring out the yeasty subtext of even the most brittle encounters.
63
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
Director Philip Saville, working from a script by Adrian Hodges (which, in turn, is based on the novel by Julian Barnes), has crafted a competent, character-based tale, but the issues examined are stale, and Saville is unable to find a way to take the story to a newer, more interesting level
80
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
A satisfying story of love and marriage told with humor and insight.
60
Chicago Reader by Lisa Alspector
This fairly serious meditation on conventionality and monogamy blames his ennui on external forces, remaining adolescent even when it suggests its hero has grown up.
91
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
It's the rare portrait of a happy marriage that is honest about the complex currents of desire, and the drama is beautifully played by Bale, who gawks with soulful sweetness, and Watson, who does her most piercing work since "Breaking the Waves."
75
San Francisco Chronicle by Peter Stack
A sexy, moody comedy that plays like a dreamy comic novel.
75
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
There are a lot of movies about escaping from the middle class, but Metroland is one of the few about escaping into it.
50
The sexually charged undercurrent of Mertoland promises something dark, disturbing or at least provocative, but as the characters reach their defining moments, it's the plot that yields to the ordinary.
63
San Francisco Examiner by Walter Addiego
Metroland is a provocative rumination on how relationships are warped by two people's inability to be truthful with each other.