Village Voice

Devos's performance is an expert workshop of internalized emotions and silent forbearance.

Variety by Lisa Nesselson

Told primarily via body language and facial expressions with a minimum of dialogue, beautifully observed, emotionally intense tale is an ambitious and rewarding outing for Frederic Fonteyne.

Salon by Andrew O'Hehir

You can't imagine a soapier setup, but Gilles' Wife taken on its own terms is a spectacular achievement, a heartbreaking cinematic work that finely balances melodrama, family love story and devastating tragedy.

Village Voice by David Ng

Devos's performance is an expert workshop of internalized emotions and silent forbearance.

Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington

The ending is a stunner. Like those '30 classics it suggests, Gilles' Wife seduces us with true cinematic magic: rich characters, great acting and that rapturous old French blend of realism and theatricality.

TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox

Cornillac is excellent as the emotionally immature Gilles, but this is Devos' show.

Miami Herald by Marta Barber

There's a timelessness to her character that makes her real even today. And in Devos' intense portrayal, she's a woman you admire.

The A.V. Club by Scott Tobias

An impeccable minimalist drama that's tailored specifically to Devos' expressive capabilities, which say more than the sparse dialogue.

Chicago Reader by Reece Pendleton

While the outcome is never really in doubt, director Frederic Fonteyne illuminates the wife's inner world with a rich sense of atmosphere, and Emmanuelle Devos' riveting performance manages to convey every shift in her character's suppressed emotional life with the subtlest of gestures and expressions.

L.A. Weekly by Ella Taylor

All but a silent movie, Frédéric Fonteyne’s strikingly atmospheric film - adapted by Philippe Blasband and Marion Hänsel from a 1937 novel - relies on the extraordinarily mobile face of Emmanuelle Devos to express the pain of a woman who has no language for her inner turmoil.

Los Angeles Times by Robert Abele

Suffused with a painterly tenderness and cruelty, the French film Gilles' Wife - based on a 1937 Belgian novel by Madeleine Bourdouxhe - stars the extraordinary actress Emmanuelle Devos.

New York Daily News by Jami Bernard

This is a lyrical art movie with admittedly limited commercial appeal, but worth seeing for cinematic explorers.

New York Post by V.A. Musetto

Fonteyne doesn't have much use for words. He prefers to tell his story via facial expressions and body language, much as filmmakers did in the silent era.

The New York Times by Manohla Dargis

Has an appealing surface beauty, largely due to the talented cinematographer Virginie Saint Martin, and an equally shallow mystery.