80
A noirish psychodrama simmering with ambiguities, the film cleverly toys with our perception by loosening our heroine’s grip on reality.
Stream Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
Preparations inspires intrigue, then curiously squanders it.
80
The New York Times by Beatrice Loayza
A noirish psychodrama simmering with ambiguities, the film cleverly toys with our perception by loosening our heroine’s grip on reality.
88
RogerEbert.com by Carlos Aguilar
While the film loses some of its mesmerizing potency in the climax and subsequent wrap-up, it's still a beautiful and acute rendering of what could be if some of the most implausible lies we tell ourselves were in fact true.
88
Slant Magazine by Diego Semerene
Lili Horvát’s film delights in wallowing in ambiguity, contradiction, and doubt.
80
Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern
Movies are seldom flawless and don’t have to be. This one speaks more eloquently to how a spell can be woven rather than broken.
67
Austin Chronicle by Josh Kupecki
Preparations successfully trades narrative authority for a more provisional path, and much like its main character, remains wholly enigmatic.
90
Los Angeles Times by Justin Chang
As its delightfully loquacious title suggests, Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time is both methodical and enigmatic. It’s a movie that sees no real contradiction between the rational and irrational, only degrees of difference. The instinctive intelligence and curiosity that Márta brings to her emotional investigation, tempered by the kind of humility that only comes with great knowledge, is what makes her such an involving protagonist — someone you naturally want to follow down any rabbit hole that may present itself.
58
The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo
Eventually, Preparations has to stop preparing and deliver some sort of answer to its central mystery, even if that turns out to be one of those maddening or exhilarating (according to taste and/or how skillfully it’s handled) shoulder shrugs. Sadly, the reveal here is quite banal, which retroactively makes the film as a whole play like a prolonged, unsatisfying tease.
70
The Hollywood Reporter by Stephen Dalton
This haunting slow-burn psychodrama is superbly acted and quietly gripping, despite some minor plot wobbles and that cumbersome title.
50
Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Time is a lovely visit to a Budapest that yields its secrets more willingly than the sad, repressed woman at the story’s center.