Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

There is a sophistication about affairs of the heart, about the wisdom and the risks of romantic involvement that is more than quintessentially French. It's irresistible as well.

Philadelphia Inquirer by Carrie Rickey

A pink-collar "Sex and the City" made urgent by the performance of Nathalie Baye.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Sean Axmaker

At its best when it remains with the women, and Marshall draws marvelous performances from all.

Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt

Baye gives a stunning performance in the central role, backed by a first-rate supporting cast.

Baltimore Sun by Athima Chansanchai

Love, however implausible, is simply beautiful in Venus.

Boston Globe by Jay Carr

It's all glossy urban fairy-tale stuff, laid on with style to spare, given added resonance by a mini-pantheon of French movie goddesses.

Village Voice by Amy Taubin

Thanks to some brilliant casting, Venus Beauty Institute provokes ideas about women, movies, sexuality, and age that extend beyond its frothy fiction.

Salon by Charles Taylor

Lets you indulge your taste for soapy heartache without leaving you feeling that you have to wash the bubbles out of your mouth.

TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh

A beautifully acted slice of intersecting lives defined and driven by the business of beauty.

Film.com by Ernest Hardy

At its core is a feminine realm (the beauty parlor) through which modern issues of alienation and casual-sex-as-a-drug are coupled with timeless questions about the natures of love and desire.

Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman

Clever and smooth, yet, like Angèle herself (or Nathalie Baye), the film is almost too placid for its own good.

New York Post by Jonathan Foreman

Slight but entertaining and occasionally touching.

Portland Oregonian by Kim Morgan

Marshall does such a good job re-creating the otherworldly energy of a temple of youth that the rest of the picture feels strained and sometimes trite. Nevertheless, parts can be absorbing, reflective and touching.

Austin Chronicle by Kimberley Jones

Warmed my heart about as much as the cold cream Angèle slathers all over her wrinkling clients.