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Canada, France · 2003
Rated R · 1h 39m
Director Denys Arcand
Starring Rémy Girard, Stéphane Rousseau, Marie-Josée Croze, Dorothée Berryman
Genre Comedy, Crime, Drama
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Fifty-something Montreal college professor, Remy, resolves to make amends after he learns that he is dying of liver cancer. He reaches out to his ex-wife and their estranged son, who uses his high-powered connections to help his father fight the terminal illness. During treatment, Remy tries to reunite with old friends as they reflect on the ties that bind together human lives.
Girard gives feisty life to the battle-weary professor, but Rousseau just follows the drill--he is glass-eyed to the point of distraction. And for all its intellectual maneuvering, the film never regains the simple power of its opening salvo.
The Barbarian Invasions might be called an idyll of death. Without excessive sentiment (but without slighting sentiment, either). [24 November 2003, p. 113]
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
A bit too neat and calculated to make the emotions ring really true.
A reunion movie, and while it's often very funny, it has none of the self-satisfied piety or strenuous jokiness of "The Big Chill." Its mood shifts between defiant exuberance and wistful contemplation, but it's never mawkish.
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
Although the specter of death hovers over the entire film, it is neither a grim nor a depressing experience. Arcand has injected a great deal of wit into the movie, and it meshes perfectly with the anticipated pathos.
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
Bristling but finally surprisingly moving film.
A full-bodied, funny and gloriously unpretentious ode to family, friendship and the meaning of life, The Barbarian Invasions is solidly entertaining, sharply written and genuinely touching.
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
Shear away the film's pretensions, and it's a soap opera of assholes.
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
I kept wondering how Arcand could have chosen as his generational representative a man not just flawed in his hedonism but one so fundamentally lacking in tenderness for others.
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
It's a feast of smart, sexy, glorious talk. The Oscar for best foreign film belongs right here.
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