TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox

Versatile, highly skilled Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland's poignant drama examines the lingering effects of U.S. intervention in Southeast Asia.

Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas

It is a straightforward, conventional narrative, charting seemingly endless cruelty and hardship, but rewards the patient with an eloquent climactic sequence that is impossible to predict.

The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt

The film achieves its power through a careful gathering of crucial details, in wordless glances, cruelties of nature and of man and the relentless determination to gain the promised land.

Chicago Reader by J.R. Jones

The script, by newcomer Sabina Murray, is occasionally cloying as the naive hero falls for a bitter prostitute (Bai Ling), but its epic tale of two cultures tragically entwined is anchored by deep and elemental emotions.

Dallas Observer by Bill Gallo

Generous in spirit and fearlessly observant, this tale of an outcast Vietnamese man's journey to freedom deserves a place of honor among the great films portraying emigrant tenacity.

New York Post

The movie grows steadily more arresting as it goes on and saves its best parts for last.

USA Today by Claudia Puig

The Beautiful Country might be too slow-moving for some, but it has powerful performances and a multi-layered quality. It is an epic journey worth taking.

Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum

Inside the Norwegian director's glove of empathy is a fist of unappeasable anger.

San Francisco Examiner by Walter Addiego

Quiet, moving and beautifully shot.

Boston Globe by Ty Burr

The filmmakers bank against their impulse toward melodrama and deliver a reconciliation that is heartbreakingly understated.

New York Post by Kyle Smith

The movie grows steadily more arresting as it goes on and saves its best parts for last.

The New York Times by Dana Stevens

It is hard not to admire the independence and ambition of The Beautiful Country, even if the film does fall short of its epic intentions.

Variety by Derek Elley

Standout performance is by Nolte who, in the final 20 minutes, draws on a deep reservoir of playing broken romantic heroes to portray Binh's father. The subtle, resonant scenes between the two men are worth the price of admission.

New York Daily News by Jami Bernard

Bai Ling plays a resourceful prostitute from a Malaysian refugee camp who grows harder and more alienated by the day. Nick Nolte, Tim Roth and Temuera Morrison offer strong supporting performances.

The A.V. Club by Tasha Robinson

A gorgeous film, framed with an eye that makes every country seem beautiful in one way or another. It's probably fitting that the human element seems fragile and flat by comparison, but the contrast leaves Beautiful Country fairly bland.