The Film Stage by Orla Smith

What might not be apparent yet from my description of this explicitly political, nuanced, and angry film is that The Perfect Candidate is also a lot of fun. This is that rare, miraculous thing: a political crowdpleaser that doesn’t sand off its edges in an effort to be palatable.

TheWrap by Alonso Duralde

The Perfect Candidate feels like a film that both represents a new era for women in the Muslim world and also one that will help push that movement forward.

The Observer (UK) by Wendy Ide

Like Maryam’s approach to local politics, the film is well-meaning but occasionally naive.

The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw

The Perfect Candidate is the sort of film I can imagine getting a remake in contemporary America or Britain, with not as many changes as we might assume.

The Guardian by Xan Brooks

The Perfect Candidate is a simple story, told without frills or even much in the way of nuance. But it’s socked through with great power, conviction and an underlying hope for a better world.

Little White Lies by Ella Kemp

Every woman’s uphill battle will look different, and here is one fleshed out admirably.

The Playlist

It may be too gentle to leave a deep impression, but its sweetness is also well-earned and nice to savor.

Movie Nation by Roger Moore

Al Zahrani, making her screen debut, holds our interest by not holding her temper. Maryam is young enough to be impatient, traditional enough to play by the rules and realistic enough to see the futility of it all.

Washington Post by Ann Hornaday

As with Wadjda, Mansour gives audiences a candid, often wryly amusing glimpse of life inside the Saudi kingdom, which is so often cloaked in opacity and menace.

The A.V. Club by Allison Shoemaker

There’s a dramatic neatness here more indicative of a parable or fairy tale than an intimate family drama. Add in a swelling, sports-movie score and The Perfect Candidate would sit comfortably on the shelf along other feel-good underdog stories. (Think Rudy, but with municipal elections and lots of oud.) Yet Al-Mansour and her able cast supply a richer texture than such a description might suggest.

The Playlist by Christina Newland

It may be too gentle to leave a deep impression, but its sweetness is also well-earned and nice to savor.

The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young

What The Perfect Candidate lacks in sophistication it makes up for in intuition, entwining the longtime taboos of music (especially the female voice) and women's active participation in political life in a positive storyline.

IndieWire by David Ehrlich

The Perfect Candidate can feel sedate and disjointed as a broad portrait of empowerment, but this is nothing if not a movie of its time, and it sings — sometimes literally — whenever it hones in on the unique struggle through which Saudi Arabian women might seize upon this historic moment.

The Irish Times by Donald Clarke

Beefed up with one too many musical numbers from the protagonist’s dad, The Perfect Candidate feels a bit slight on plot and character. But Zahrani’s performance and the urgency of the issues elevate it from the ordinary. A great last shot compensates for all deficiencies.

Screen Daily by Jonathan Romney

The film never entirely transcends its nature as a polemical pamphlet - and despite strong presence in those scenes where Maryam speaks truth to power, Alzahrani doesn’t quite have the charisma to make her substantially more than a representative figure.

Variety by Jay Weissberg

At every step, Al Mansour feeds the audience exactly what she thinks will make them feel good about positive change in Saudi Arabia, setting up conflict and resolution with all the nuance of a by-the-numbers construction kit.