60
What rescues the film is Gernot Roll's spare, almost aesthetic cinematography, and the quality of the acting.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
60
There's something too refined and emotionally neutral about Nowhere in Africa, as if Link had directed with white gloves. Maybe she knew how loaded this African-Jewish subject was and didn't want it push it too hard. Maybe that's why she won an Oscar.
80
The movie's real strength lies in its intelligent, sympathetic account of the dynamic, difficult marriage of Regina's parents.
70
Beautifully shot on location in Kenya and filled with touching, almost magical moments, Link's film has been nominated for the 2002 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film.
90
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
This is an intelligent epic told without special pleading, a film able to cut deep enough to reveal a keen specificity of experience.
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey
Isn't really a dull film so much as an oddly quaint one that seems to find a comfortable perspective about drastic circumstances.
75
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
Audience empathy for the displaced Redlichs, coupled with the filmmaker's proffered charms of wise natives and their mysterious rituals, goes a long way toward making this lyrical travelogue a crowd pleaser.
88
It's also as good as "Out of Africa."
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Sean Axmaker
Never quite escapes the Euro-centric blinders of its characters, but its engagement with their evolving sense of identity and story of empowerment and acceptance is nonetheless rousing.
88
The movie's strength is its refusal to offer easy answers.