90
Not just a fitting document of a life brilliantly lived but a vibrant, almost palpitating piece of cinema.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
80
New Times (L.A.) by Andy Klein
Dench is wholly extraordinary in a characterization that is frequently muted, literally and necessarily.
80
Suffers from PBS syndrome, but Dame Judi Dench cures with a moving portrayal of life with Alzheimer's.
75
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
Dench and Winslet give strong and creative performances, and Broadbent is positively brilliant as old Bayley.
90
Washington Post by Desson Thomson
A saga of unbearable sadness and romantic beauty.
80
The film is not a biopic or a portrait of a famous marriage so much as it is an imaginative essay on what made a union between two radically different people work as well as it did.
70
It's a great achievement, quiet enough to allow room for her excellent supporting cast -- but strong enough to be felt over James Horner's omnipresent, typically overbearing score.
75
Though Iris is extremely well-acted and beautifully photographed, some audience members may find themselves agreeing with Bayley's frustrated complaint: "I've never known who you are."
75
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
It's good, but not great -- despite the heights to which Dench and Broadbent drive it. But those heights are lofty, the pain still stings.
83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Paula Nechak
The film is so crisply acted and smartly drawn that you barely notice the cracks in the veneer.