Time by Richard Corliss

This is a chase movie (Simon Legree after three Little Evas) across parched outback terrain, captured with rapturous authenticity by cinematographer Christopher Doyle.

Portland Oregonian by Shawn Levy

The result is a film that outrages and fills the viewer with poetry that's at once epic and intimate, scandalizing and life-affirming -- a real work of art.

Baltimore Sun by Michael Sragow

I love Rabbit-Proof Fence as drama, as protest, as moviemaking and as poetry.

San Francisco Chronicle by Jonathan Curiel

A breathtaking story of defiance and triumph that has to be considered one of the year's most sublime films.

Washington Post by Ann Hornaday

Searing dramatization of a story of remarkable courage, stamina and spirit.

Newsweek by David Ansen

Noyce uses his Hollywood craft to unfold this primal, powerful story, he has an epic feel for the harshly beautiful Australian landscape and he gets wonderfully natural performances from the three girls. His bold, lyrical images stay in your head, like an unaccountably beautiful nightmare.

Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern

A movie of minimalist moments (Molly's tiniest gestures speak volumes) and lovely, almost holy tableaux.

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

The final scene of the film contains an appearance and a revelation of astonishing emotional power; not since the last shots of "Schindler's List" have I been so overcome with the realization that real people, in recent historical times, had to undergo such inhumanity.

ReelViews by James Berardinelli

At an economical 94 minutes, Rabbit-Proof Fence trims all the fat and tells its heartfelt and stirring story. This is one of 2002's most memorable imports.

Charlotte Observer by Lawrence Toppman

The rabbits, foolishly introduced to a land that couldn't support them as they bred and dispersed, are symbols of the English: ravenous, unheeding, ineradicable and a constant threat to the native way of life.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Paula Nechak

Noyce's movie is a testament to endurance -- the camera caresses the landscape -- instilling us with a respect and reverence for it, its harsh ways and the attachment to it that Australia's indigenous people hold.

Variety by David Stratton

It succeeds emotionally in the cause of what seems to be its primary aim, to advance an attitudinal change in Australians not normally sympathetic to the aboriginal cause.

The New York Times by Stephen Holden

Although the movie, adapted from a book by Doris Pilkington Garimara, pushes emotional buttons and simplifies its true story to give it the clean narrative sweep of an extended folk ballad, it never goes dramatically overboard.

L.A. Weekly by Ella Taylor

Noyce wants us to feel the joy of the homecoming, but he's honest enough to show, in a coda that tells what happened to the girls after their break for home, how Rabbit Proof Fence finally must be more a tale of courage than of victory.

TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox

Thrilling, heart-wrenching tale of the real-life incredible journey.

New York Post by Lou Lumenick

Noyce paces this amazing story well, and even if his young actors don't seem to have physically suffered as much as they would during such a long journey, he makes extremely good use of the bleak Outback scenery.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey

Not until the final shot does Noyce rise up to the potential of the history: There's a sudden shiver of recognition, that, my God, these people really lived this.

Film Threat by Phil Hall

Achieves the impossible by taking one of the most compelling and harrowing stories imaginable and channeling it into one of the most ordinary movies of the year.