70
At heart a love story, Rosenstrasse benefits from strong, sympathetic performances from two actresses who play the same character at different ages.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
40
Von Trotta and co-writer Pamela Katz can't resist cutting, again and again, to Hannah and her airless musings on the story's meaning. These interludes stop the movie in its tracks and, counter no doubt to von Trotta's intentions, do a disservice to the Rosenstrasse women themselves, who shouldn't have to fight for screen time.
100
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
The movie is woven with care and complexity, again confirming von Trotta's place as one of the world's greatest female filmmakers.
70
A sober, unsensationalized enactment of a Holocaust incident. Von Trotta keeps sentimentality at bay and, as a result, the film isn't as emotionally wrenching as it might have been.
60
As a treatment of yet another unexplored corner of the Nazi nightmare, the film is revelatory; needless to say it's also heartbreaking.
70
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
Most important is the film's consistent unexpectedness. Rosenstrasse captures well not only the varying states of mind and levels of awareness in Germany during World War II but also the era's lingering effect upon its survivors.
30
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
There's something unsettling when fiction exploits this history to such puny, self-interested ends.
70
Washington Post by Michael O'Sullivan
A modest yet moving fact-based drama.
50
Von Trotta lingers for so long on the backstory and framing story that the movie's heart never comes to the fore.
50
Mawkish and manipulative, the film isn't worthy of its widely praised German director.