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Average User Score: 5 (1 sources)

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HimekosAhoge

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uninteresting Italian drama

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Posted jun 18, 2009 1:36 am pt

• [+] The New York Times
  
  90
  Not since "Y Tu Mamá También" has a movie so palpably captured the down-to-earth, flesh-and-blood reality of high-spirited people living their lives without self-consciousness.

  by Stephen Holden | Read Full Review »
• [+] Premiere
  
  88
  In the annals of Mediterranean island love stories, Respiro reflects the effortless charm of a film like "Il Postino," rather than the untidy manufactured romance of another "Captain Corelli's Mandolin."

  by Peter Debruge | Read Full Review »
• [+] Washington Post
  
  80
  It's slight but in a haunting way, like a half-remembered dream.

  by Stephen Hunter | Read Full Review »
• [+] Entertainment Weekly
  
  75
  For all Golino's comeliness, she's upstaged by the windy beauty of the landscape, and by Crialese's attention -- in an Italian neorealist way -- to the routines of daily life in an insular, traditional culture.

  by Lisa Schwarzbaum | Read Full Review »
• [+] Chicago Sun-Times
  
  75
  A cheerful, life-affirming film, strong in its energy, about vivid characters. It uses mental illness as an entertainment, not a disease.

  by Roger Ebert | Read Full Review »
• [+] Boston Globe
  
  75
  If you prefer your domestic clashes sunnier and more strenuously poetic, Respiro may be your respite. If nothing else, it's a reminder of how severely underutilized Valeria Golino is as both actress and cinematic glory.

  by Ty Burr | Read Full Review »
• [+] New York Daily News
  
  75
  A beautifully composed tone poem about unspoken group dynamics in an isolated community. It is also, in its way, about how love endures.

  by Jami Bernard | Read Full Review »
• [+] Chicago Tribune
  
  75
  This is one of those films that can accurately be described as small. Mostly, you just appreciate the time spent with these particular people in this particular place.

  by Mark Caro | Read Full Review »
• [+] Seattle Post-Intelligencer
  
  75
  Director Emanuele Crialese captures a stifling, dead-end rural culture awash in nature's beauty but seething with pent-up sexual frustration.

  by William Arnold | Read Full Review »
• [+] Baltimore Sun
  
  75
  The bulk of the film merely yearns for lucidity and magic. At its worst, Respiro resembles My Big Fat Italian Nervous Breakdown.

  by Michael Sragow | Read Full Review »
• [+] San Francisco Chronicle
  
  75
  On its own terms, the movie succeeds. Like a fable, its meanings are unspecific but haunting.

  by Mick LaSalle | Read Full Review »
• [+] Variety
  
  70
  Crialese's first feature in his native Italy is a small but distinctive drama that displays a firm command of his cast, an arresting visual sense and an admirable avoidance of facile sentiment or cliche.

  by David Rooney | Read Full Review »
• [+] Dallas Observer
  
  70
  A small but grand expression of the beauty of the feminine, which brings everyone together with revised and deepened appreciation.

  by Gregory Weinkauf | Read Full Review »
• [+] Los Angeles Times
  
  70
  The film doubtless works better for those able to accept it unquestioningly as a charming fable of the redemptive, healing power of love that it means to be.

  by Kevin Thomas | Read Full Review »
• [+] LA Weekly
  
  70
  The movie's pleasures draw on old-fashioned Italian neo-realist simplicity.

  by Ella Taylor | Read Full Review »