Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
Director
Katell Quillévéré
Cast
Anne Dorval,
Tahar Rahim,
Emmanuelle Seigner,
Kool Shen,
Alice Taglioni
Genre
Drama
It all starts at daybreak, three young surfers on the raging seas. A few hours later, on the way home, an accident occurs. Now entirely hooked up to life-support in a hospital in Le Havre, Simon’s existence is little more than an illusion. Meanwhile, in Paris, a woman awaits the organ transplant that will give her a new lease on life.
RogerEbert.com by Sheila O'Malley
Heal the Living is director Katell Quillévéré's third feature, and shows her humane vision of the interconnectedness of humans and the fragile miracle of life. The plot comes straight out of any hospital-based episodic, but it's Quillévéré's approach that is so unique, and ultimately, so powerful.
Variety by Guy Lodge
It’s Quillévéré’s soaring visual and sonic acumen (with an assist from composer Alexandre Desplat, here in matchless form) that suffuses a potentially familiar hospital weeper with true grace.
The Telegraph by Robbie Collin
Throughout, Quillévéré keeps asking her cast for the impossible, and gets it.
Screen Daily by Lisa Nesselson
In what is only fitting for a story literally and figuratively embroidered around hearts, the film’s visual and emotional beats are perfectly in synch.
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
Heal the Living reveals a gift for joining skillful visual filmmaking with moving, affecting storytelling, all in the service of a story that unfolds in surprising ways.
Village Voice by Nick Schager
At once sorrowful and optimistic, Heal the Living captures the terrifying fragility of life, even as it also recognizes the strength derived from the many connections — organic, emotional, and associative — that bind and define us.
Screen International by Lisa Nesselson
In what is only fitting for a story literally and figuratively embroidered around hearts, the film’s visual and emotional beats are perfectly in synch.
CineVue by Patrick Gamble
Quille?ve?re? has created a poignant exploration not just of death, but of life, love and fragility.
Time Out London by Cath Clarke
The medical side of things is shown in documentary detail, and it’s fascinating.
The Hollywood Reporter by Boyd van Hoeij
Though the film’s two halves aren’t equally as strong, with the second half lacking some of the complexity and breathtaking sweep of part one, this is an impressive step up for Quillevere.
Slant Magazine
The film allows the sorrows of losing a life and the joys of saving it to remain congruent.
Slant Magazine by Derek Smith
The film allows the sorrows of losing a life and the joys of saving it to remain congruent.
The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis
It’s all just empty calories; what this movie desperately needs is conflict.
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