Washington Post by Ann Hornaday

Kuosmanen has given us another affair to remember, this time about love as something for which you’d not just go to the ends of the Earth, but to the beginning of time.

Original-Cin by Liam Lacey

Adapted from a novel by Finnish writer Rosa Liksom and set in brutal cold of a northern Russian winter or in a cramped jostling train car, Compartment No. 6 somehow lands in an unexpected warm place between the grim and the serio-comic.

Los Angeles Times by Robert Abele

In stripping genre ornamentation away to get to what brings people together in stark, lonely, and in this case, mighty cold circumstances, Finnish filmmaker Juho Kuosmanen (“The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki”) has achieved something genuinely unlikely, and quietly renewing about what a love story can be.

New York Magazine (Vulture) by Bilge Ebiri

There’s nothing particularly surprising about the story, but Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen finds a way to make an old tale feel new.

The New York Times by Manohla Dargis

Part of what makes Compartment No. 6 engrossing and effective is how Kuosmanen plays with tone.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Aparita Bhandari

Russia’s stark landscape makes for breathtaking and sometimes comical scenes. This is a trip well worth taking.

Chicago Tribune by Michael Phillips

It’s tough-minded and tender-hearted in equal measure. It’s also slyly insightful on the theme of chance elements in solo travel, and unexpected, emotionally tricky connections along the way.

The Associated Press by Jake Coyle

Adapting Rosa Liksom’s novel of the same name, Kuosmanen has moved the book from the ’80s to the ’90s and lost some of the story’s political backdrop in favor of a more out-of-time love story.

RogerEbert.com by Glenn Kenny

An observation that when you’re running away, it doesn’t matter where you’re running to as much as it matters where you’re running from. “Compartment No. 6” has an always energetic sense of place even when it’s keeping to the confined space of its title room. Combined with the committed acting, it makes for a worthwhile journey.

Time Out by Dave Calhoun

The performances, the writing and the direction all conspire to make it feel fresh and specific, and as bleak as the settings may be, it has a delicious black comic streak and shares the buzz of personal re-awakening without ever feeling obvious or cheap. It turns out to be a beacon of warmth amid a frozen wasteland.

Variety by Jessica Kiang

The humdrum and heartswelling Compartment No. 6 evokes a powerful nostalgia for a type of loneliness we don’t really have any more, and for the type of love that was its cure.

The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney

As dour as it often seems with its reek of stale booze and cigarette smoke, there’s joy here for patient audiences willing to find it, and to forego the easy consolations of a more conventional outcome.

The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw

Despite the bone-chilling cold of its location in Murmansk in Russia’s remote north-west, there’s a wonderful human warmth and humour in this offbeat romantic story of strangers on a train.

Slant Magazine by Pat Brown

Juho Kuosmanen’s film interestingly thrives off of an ironic juxtaposition of character and environment.

The Playlist by Elena Lazic

Compartment No.6 is at its best when it unveils the gap between its characters’ true identities and the parts that they choose to play.

TheWrap by Ben Croll

It requires, and ultimately rewards, patience.

Screen Daily by Jonathan Romney

Compartment No. 6 is something of a minimalist shaggy dog story, ending on a bittersweet low-key note.

The Film Stage by Alistair Ryder

Kuosmanen has crafted a drama within a clearly defined moment in recent history, only to refuse to be tied to it. This approach to period storytelling proves far more intriguing than the romantic drama within this setting.

The Film Stage

Kuosmanen has crafted a drama within a clearly defined moment in recent history, only to refuse to be tied to it. This approach to period storytelling proves far more intriguing than the romantic drama within this setting.