The Wait(L'attesa)

The New York Times by A.O. Scott

The performances are vivid and moving, but there is ultimately less to this well-made, impeccably acted film than meets the eye. Its meticulousness is to some degree a flaw, an evasion of nearly every variety of human messiness.

The Hollywood Reporter by Boyd van Hoeij

Audience’s tolerance for this kind of heavy-handed, occasionally very mannerist symbolism may vary, though Messina does ensure that the religious parallels never completely eclipse the contemporary characters.

CineVue by John Bleasdale

The Wait consistently defies common sense in order to sustain the thin narrative.

Los Angeles Times by Katie Walsh

The film is a moody and lyrical contemplation of grief and the connections that can be found within the void of loss.

Screen International by Lisa Nesselson

The entire film is a game of cat and mouse in the emotional equivalent of slow-motion, made watchable by elegant compositions and De Laâge’s natural beauty.

Village Voice by Melissa Anderson

Binoche's hushed histrionics, though, are of a piece with the fruity portentousness of L'Attesa.

The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo

The only way to enjoy this movie is to concentrate on its frequently stunning compositions and ignore the fact that none of it makes even a tiny lick of sense.

Variety by Peter Debruge

Benefiting enormously from its evocative Sicilian setting, this widescreen experience makes bewitching use of space, time and sound, creating an almost meditative atmosphere in which patient-minded auds might respond to its themes.

RogerEbert.com by Susan Wloszczyna

What Messina lacks in substance in his storytelling, he mostly makes up with raw feelings. We come to care through our own powers of observation, and that might be enough.

The Film Stage by Zhuo-Ning Su

In the end, like a breath of stylized, impassioned hot air, L’attesa evokes feelings associated with bereavement effectively but has nothing substantial to add to the whole psychology of loss.