90
A beautiful and formally compelling work of art.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
80
The New Yorker by Anthony Lane
Mungiu’s pacing is so sure, however, in its switching from loose to taut, and the concentration of his leading lady so unwavering, that the movie, which won the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, feels more like a thriller than a moody wallow.
100
Tense, kinetic, intelligent and real – as if Paul Greengrass had remade Vera Drake.
90
New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein
The coup de grâce is especially graceless because everything we know is already visible in Marinca’s eyes. The actress is extraordinary.
100
Though the frighteningly late-term abortion at its center hints at larger sins in the last gasp of Nicolae Ceausescu’s iron-fisted regime, it’s no metaphor, but a sordidly visceral transaction conducted in the next best thing to a back alley.
100
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
This is a film with a commitment to reality unlike any we're used to seeing.
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey
Relentlessly dark but expertly rendered, it shares its cinematographer and quality of aggrieved compassion with another recent Romanian art house hit, "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu."
80
The Hollywood Reporter by Ray Bennett
The film is dark, gloomy and without music, but it is also observant and highly suspenseful, with Mungiu using his often static camera to balance banal cruelty with simple generosity.
100
One of the strongest movies in recent years.