TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox

Faithfull is marvelous: Once notorious for her own escapades, this great-great-niece of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch is no shrinking violet, but she's perfect as a plump, frumpy widow with a huge heart and a hidden talent no one would ever suspect.

Chicago Tribune

It turns out a success, tempering its farfetched scenario with enough restraint and believability to pass for a modest parable of modern manners.

San Francisco Chronicle by Ruthe Stein

Sam Garbarski's use of slow-motion shots is pretentious, and he paces the film too slowly. But he captures the seedy side of London, giving you a feel for Soho during the day when sunshine exposes a cheap gaudiness.

Chicago Tribune by Sid Smith

It turns out a success, tempering its farfetched scenario with enough restraint and believability to pass for a modest parable of modern manners.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Bill White

Garbarski recovers from the melodrama with a final image that is so sweet, so simple and so understated that one is tempted to say it is perfect.

Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

Genially preposterous and pleasantly diverting, it balances calculation against humanity and generally comes out on top.

The Hollywood Reporter by Ray Bennett

Marianne Faithfull is unforgettable as a middle-class, middle-aged frump …in Sam Garbarski's crowd-pleasing comedy-drama Irina Palm.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey

Hoary, rather than whore-y, Irina Palm is shameless only in its mawkish sincerity.

The New York Times by A.O. Scott

Irina Palm is, for the most part, a phony trifle, but at its heart, somehow, is a real and fascinating person.

Empire by Kat Brown

There's a heartwarming quality that softens the hardcore setting but this does lack an assured, er, hand.

Boston Globe by Janice Page

Doesn't deliver on a lot of fronts. But then again it gives us full-on Faithfull, who manages to bare herself completely without ever actually getting undressed.

Chicago Reader by J.R. Jones

The dopey premise only takes to a gross extreme the "Full Monty" formula that the Brits have been milking for more than a decade.

New York Post by Lou Lumenick

The demand for her services is so great that she suffers from "penis elbow," but her popularity also brings self-esteem and a possible boyfriend in her boss (Miki Manojlovic) in this lethargically directed comedy.

Variety

Astonishingly, pic reaped hearty guffaws at Berlinale press show, suggesting this might play best in Europe, but Anglophone auds are more likely to give Palm the thumbs down.

Village Voice

Nobody can reduce tawdry material to doddering quaintness like the British, but this staggeringly inane joint effort of U.K., Belgian, French, German, and Luxembourgian film financing represents a true coalition of the witless.