Boston Globe by Ty Burr

Blistering and brilliant work.

Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt

A pungent, powerful film that points an accusing finger not at religious beliefs but at flawed human institutions. It also targets social and cultural mores that are almost medieval in their patriarchal bias against girls and women.

Film Threat by K.J. Doughton

Although this ain't Hogwarts, there's full-scale witchery being practiced behind Magdalene's locked doors.

Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman

The rare movie that turns cruelty into art.

Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington

A fierce, brilliant film that breaks (and then mends) your heart.

Portland Oregonian by Kim Morgan

A picture so powerfully harrowing, its slight shortcomings are forgettable compared to the entire film's cumulative effect. It's that searing.

Slate by David Edelstein

Both a masterpiece and a holy hell: Watching it, you feel you're being punished for a crime you didn't commit. Which puts you, come to think of it, in the same frame of mind as those poor Magdalene girls.

Washington Post by Ann Hornaday

A stirring, emotionally galvanizing film, not only due to its shattering subject matter but thanks to Mullan's spot-on eye for casting and fluid, uncoercive style.

Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

Graced with performers who bring a purity of emotion to their work, the film is always dramatically convincing. There is a fundamental air of truth about it, a sense that, horrific though things seem, this is how it must have been.

Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern

See The Magdalene Sisters for its own sake; the performances alone are inspirational. But see it too as an example of how powerful a feature film still can be in the hands of an impassioned filmmaker.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Sean Axmaker

It is passionate and angry and rousing where you might expect it to become numbing and depressing.

The New York Times by Stephen Holden

The Magdalene Sisters would be too painful to watch if it didn't have a silver lining. Suffice it to say that it is possible to fly over this religious cuckoo's nest and remain free. All it takes is courage and the timely kindness of strangers.

L.A. Weekly by Scott Foundas

Grim, grueling and triumphantly powerful.

Variety by David Rooney

Mullan's increased maturity as a director is evident in his skill at manipulating light and dark dramatic tones, and shifting between moods of anger and plaintive melancholy.

ReelViews by James Berardinelli

A disturbing and compelling motion picture that depicts the forces that try to suppress the human spirit, and the strength of these girls in overcoming it.

San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle

A powerful document of cruelty and sadism.

Rolling Stone by Peter Travers

Mullan errs by making all the sisters dragon ladies. Still, the film gets to you; it's a powerhouse.