Screen International by Allan Hunter
Leilo’s unassuming style serves the story and provides a great showcase for both performers.
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
United Kingdom, Ireland, United States · 2017
Rated R · 1h 54m
Director Sebastián Lelio
Starring Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams, Alessandro Nivola, Cara Horgan
Genre Drama, Romance
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New York photographer Ronit Krushka flies to London after learning about the death of her estranged father. She is returning to the same Orthodox Jewish community that shunned her for her attraction to Esti, a female friend. The two women's reunion soon reignites their burning passions as they explore the boundaries of faith and sexuality.
Screen International by Allan Hunter
Leilo’s unassuming style serves the story and provides a great showcase for both performers.
None of these three characters are tidy, but neither is desire, nor faith, nor love, and Lelio resists every opportunity to make them so.
Disobedience is a beautiful, fraught, and emotionally nuanced drama that wrestles with hard questions about the tension between the life we’re born into and the one we choose for ourselves.
The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney
Beautifully acted by Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams and Alessandro Nivola as the three points of a melancholy romantic triangle, this is a deeply felt drama that exerts a powerful grip.
In the end, Disobedience is less about the subjugation of the self to the group than the courage to embrace uncertainty if one were to break out of the prison of a world one has been born into.
The Film Stage by Jared Mobarak
Disobedience‘s journey is one of authentic emotional honesty excelling in instances of insecurity and fear.
The Playlist by Kevin Jagernauth
The elegance of Disobedience, which in the wrong hands could be sensational and one-dimensional, cannot be overstated.
The Associated Press by Lindsey Bahr
McAdams and Weisz are on fire in Disobedience showing sides to their talents that we’ve never seen before in this truly unique film. Disobedience might not look like it’s for everyone on the surface, but its specificity is what makes it worthy and, almost, great.
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
The director Sebastián Lelio should have been a good fit for this story if only because of the sensitivity he’s brought to female-driven movies like “Gloria.” Although Disobedience seems to offer him similar material — female desire up against the patriarchy — it defeats him.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
This is richly satisfying and powerfully acted work.
Traveling to rural Bhutan where religion is more popular than politics, the election supervisor discovers that a monk is planning a mysterious ceremony for election day.