Village Voice by Pete Vonder Haar

Biyi Bandele's Half of a Yellow Sun strikes an admirable balance between drama and history.

Slant Magazine

It falls into the trappings of middlebrow literary adaptation by finding only sporadic means to convincingly adjudicate the trauma and anguish of its transitory epoch.

Slant Magazine by Clayton Dillard

It falls into the trappings of middlebrow literary adaptation by finding only sporadic means to convincingly adjudicate the trauma and anguish of its transitory epoch.

Chicago Sun-Times by Mary Houlihan

The film is well acted all around and the excellent art direction brings the ’60s to colorful life. But Bandele struggles to balance an epic story of civil war and death against the equally epic story of sisters whose lives are forever changed by circumstances they can’t control.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service by Roger Moore

It’s a bit of a muddle and a touch too soap operatic. But Newton, Rose and Ejiofor give their characters and this story just enough pathos to make the history lessons sink in.

The Telegraph by Mike McCahill

Only a film as big as Africa could have done Adichie’s novel full justice; the treatment it gets here, equally honourable and hurried, reduces it to Nigerian soap with BAFTA-level acting.

Variety by Guy Lodge

The rare prestige pic that could actually stand to be longer.

The Hollywood Reporter by Leslie Felperin

Half of a Yellow Sun is the kind of ambitious literary adaptation that wants it all kinds of ways, not all of them compatible.

Total Film

Bandele’s keen handling of cast and domestic conflict makes for a nuanced historical epic, but he’s less sure on the big stuff.

Time Out London by Trevor Johnston

Half of a Yellow Sun bravely takes on too broad a canvas with too narrow a budget, but it’s a relevant saga that’s worth telling.

Total Film by Kevin Harley

Bandele’s keen handling of cast and domestic conflict makes for a nuanced historical epic, but he’s less sure on the big stuff.

The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw

the film is often stately and sluggish with some very daytime-soapy moments of emotional revelation.

CineVue by Ben Nicholson

An uneven blend of melodrama and the horrors of civil war, it should be anchored by strong leads but instead remains listless and adrift.

Empire by David Hughes

Newcomers will be puzzled by the clumsy contextualisation and muddled motivation of characters who, robbed of their inner lives by a clunky script, are left floundering amid the melodrama and speak-the-plot dialogue.