Bleak Moments

TV Guide Magazine by

Good direction and fine performances keep the pace of this lengthy film moving and prevent the material's descent into maudlin sentimentality.

The New York Times by Janet Maslin

The best that can be said for Bleak Moments is that it earns its name. The film, while it has been handsomely photographed, seems entirely given over to pained, wordless interludes. [23 Sep 1980, p.C6]

The A.V. Club by Keith Phipps

The ability to find performers who never seem for a moment to be performing is also here, giving Bleak Moments, like all of Leigh's films, an almost voyeuristic feel.

Empire by Kim Newman

Downright depressing.

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

It is a first film by a young British director who exhibits in every scene a complete mastery of the kind of characterization he is attempting. This film is a masterpiece, plain and simple, and that is a statement I doubt I will ever have cause to revise.