80
Audrey Tautou trades in Amelie’s wide-eyed sprite look for le sourpuss in this sober yet fascinating take on aristocratic social mores between the wars.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
If the banality of life within the Bordeaux gentry is the point, then the ensuing oppressiveness is immaculately depicted through precise performances and camerawork—just don't call it emotionally engaging drama.
40
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
Mr. Miller’s stolid approach — with its waxwork figures, postcard beauty, insistent tastefulness and glaze of politesse — feels far too comfortably of this world to mount a critique of it.
60
Though bourgie audiences looking for a sun-warmed romance will be slapped; the movie may look pretty and may plod, but it also leaves a bruise.
50
Mauriac’s portrait of a society obsessed with family honor and the appearance of propriety at all costs comes through strongly, but that can’t entirely compensate for a character study with a hard-working vacuum at its center. Like Keanu Reeves, Tautou requires a perfect fit; when she tries to stretch, she gets stranded.
50
A second-act forest fire proves a handy metaphor for Tautou’s slowly burning rage at confinement. Yet while it seems thematically apt, it’s also wholly out of place in this static, emotionless saga, which is defined less by zealous feeling than by a dull, decorous air of respectability.
50
Los Angeles Times by Sheri Linden
Even given the character's extreme introspection and withdrawal, Tautou's performance is too often opaque.
50
RogerEbert.com by Simon Abrams
Thérèse never goes beyond that level of psychological complexity because after a point, Miller and Carter aren't interested in exploring the murky depths of Thérèse 's feelings.
50
Slant Magazine by Tomas Hachard
Claude Miller's swan song not only shares its main character's name but also her tempered disposition.