46
Metascore
12 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasSummer Phoenix has a screen presence that's simultaneously distancing and transfixing, an inscrutability that makes her seem either mysterious or a complete blank.
- 60L.A. WeeklyManohla DargisL.A. WeeklyManohla DargisBrilliantly edited and gorgeously shot, Esther Kahn is a dream to look at and, courtesy of Howard Shore's minor chords and high-strung strings, definitely something to hear.
- 60New Times (L.A.)David EhrensteinNew Times (L.A.)David EhrensteinAt 145 minutes it's a bit of a stretch, but the cinematographer is the great Eric Gautier ("Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train," "Pola X") and the score by Howard Shore is far superior to his Oscar-winning "Lord of the Rings."
- 50SlateDavid EdelsteinSlateDavid EdelsteinIt's a charcoal draft of a movie -- magically allusive on some levels and utterly opaque on others, a strange combination of the overexplicit and the unwritten.
- 50Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittDesplechin wants to film an adventure of the human spirit in the manner of a Hitchcockian drama, but he doesn't have a solid enough grasp of English culture to equal the complexity of his French productions like "The Sentinel" and "The Life of the Dead."
- 40The New York TimesDana StevensThe New York TimesDana StevensIt is also possible that the problem lies not with Mr. Desplechin but with Ms. Phoenix. Her Esther is a fascinating mixture of passivity and ferocity, but it's not clear that she has the range to show both sides of the character.
- 30Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanThis is a movie about the nature of acting -- or, more specifically, the nature that creates an actress -- centered on what appears to be a spectacularly unconvincing title-role performance.
- 20VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthySenselessly long at two-and-three-quarters hours and with a protracted climax that eradicates any goodwill established in the fastidious first couple of reels.
- 12New York PostMegan LehmannNew York PostMegan LehmannHow do you inject life into a film whose central character is dull, slow, stupid and grim?If you're Arnaud Desplechin, you don't.