Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

One of the places where In a Better World is especially successful is comparing and contrasting the moral worlds of children and adults, showing how difficult but essential it is for each group to learn from the other.

Orlando Sentinel by Roger Moore

A most deserving Oscar winner and a film that could provoke discussion anywhere it is shown, anywhere people of any age are being bullied.

Charlotte Observer by Lawrence Toppman

Anton has a sad, gentle detachment that allows him to turn the other cheek literally through a series of slaps.

Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum

A fine example of Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier's (Brothers) talent for weaving together accessible domestic melodrama and issues of ethical awareness of the world beyond our doorstep.

Portland Oregonian by Shawn Levy

The acting is superb across the board, and the film moves dreamily yet with razor-sharp precision, building to a sequence of deeply felt climaxes.

Boxoffice Magazine by Steve Ramos

An artistically mature work with pitch perfect performances.

Variety

However didactic the film's final scenes, there's no denying the sheer dramatic intensity Bier achieves.

Variety by Peter Debruge

However didactic the film's final scenes, there's no denying the sheer dramatic intensity Bier achieves.

New York Daily News by Joe Neumaier

World is grounded, offering up a rare case of well-earned hopefulness.

Austin Chronicle by Marjorie Baumgarten

There are no answers in her film, no intractable rights and wrongs. No characters are indicted for their mistakes or misjudgments, yet no one gets off scot-free either.

Rolling Stone by Peter Travers

An emotional powerhouse.

IndieWire by Eric Kohn

Bier has done far more compelling work before, but the globe-spanning, life-affirming, morally upright trajectory of her latest accomplishment weakens its quality while sustaining its popularity. In a Better World is heavy, but it's also heavy-handed.

The New York Times by A.O. Scott

Everything about In a Better World feels just a little too easy: a better movie might have let in more of the messiness of the world as it is. This one falls into cheap manipulation, winding up the audience with foreboding music and the spectacle of blond children in peril.

Village Voice by Ella Taylor

Slick moralizing grows exponentially as the plot, wrapped in travelogue photography, transparently expository dialogue, and cheap thrills, drives home spurious parallels between the first and third worlds.

New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein

Bier dramatizes our ambivalence so earnestly that it's tempting to give her awards rather than admit that the movie is a crushing bore.

Time Out by David Fear

While Bier doesn't offer easy partisan answers, she still dilutes a social issue down to the level of soap-operatic background noise and back-patting platitudes. It-and we-deserve better.