The film is touching, but more than that it’s wise, witty and thought-provoking.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Slant Magazine by Andrew Schenker
The film works best when it focuses viewer attention most acutely on the story, deflecting it away from the director's manipulations.
Perhaps the richest of Resnais's recent efforts.
What elevates the film is a pervasive, palpable sense of loss — between lover and beloved, young and old, stage and screen.
The cumulative effect is occasionally dizzying but transparent, a frantic attempt to cram themes into cinematic conceit.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
Despite its moments of charm and caprice, the film is prolix, inert, indulgent and often just plain dull.
Though Resnais’ gamble seems to have failed, it’s encouraging to see a director on the brink of 90 still willing to experiment in a way most helmers half his age wouldn’t dare.
The Telegraph by Robbie Collin
While his ambitious conceit hangs together over two hours of loudly-declaimed meta-metatheatricality, my word, does it feel like an unholy slog.
Portland Oregonian by Stan Hall
For those with adventurous tastes and a little extra patience, the 90-year-old's possible swan song (though he evidently is far from fatigued) is rewarding.
The Hollywood Reporter by Todd McCarthy
This reflection on the past, love and death through the prism of layers of theatrical endeavor is both serious and frisky, engaging on a refined level but frustratingly limited in its complexity and depth.