“The presence of Kristin Scott Thomas in this literate French movie by Philippe Claudel is so powerfully distinctive that it’s as if Claudel has not merely written the lead role for her, but extrapolated his film’s entire narrative structure from Scott Thomas’s personality. Her formidable bilingual presence, her beauty – elegant and drawn in early middle age - her air of hypersensitive awareness of all the tiny absurdities and indignities with which she is surrounded, coupled with a drolly lenient reticence: it all creates an intelligent, observant drama about dislocation, fragility and the inner pain of unshakeable memories... Scott Thomas’s performance [is] easily the best of her career... the centre of a deeply involving, beautifully acted and expertly constructed human drama by and for grown-ups.” — Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“The woman she plays, Juliette, has been away spiritually as well as physically for many years, and the drama is mainly about her struggle to reclaim a vital place in the here and now. But Claudel’s remarkable debut feature is equally about the thrill of watching a superb actress give a great performance. The game Scott Thomas plays is an intricate one – keeping us connected to this cold, withholding woman during the course of her slow thaw. Better than connected, she keeps us enthralled.

Until now, the writer-director has been known primarily as a novelist. Although a literary sensibility can get in the way of filmmaking, this film is all the more fascinating for it, even if the script sometimes strays into flagrant contrivance. The only plot point I’ll give away is one that figures prominently in the trailer: Juliette has been serving a term in prison. Her first refuge in the outside world is the home of her younger sister, Léa, a college professor played with singular delicacy by Elsa Zylberstein. But the sisters haven’t seen one another for 14 years, so Juliette’s spiritual solitude is intensified by her estrangement from Léa, and by hostility from Léa’s husband, who isn’t up for a supporting role in Juliette’s rehabilitation... Claudel gives his heroine unusual depth, which Kristin Scott Thomas reveals with unusual passion, and he fills the world around her with characters who bespeak a novelist’s fertile imagination, along with a director’s ability – where did all his good cinematic instincts come from? – to bring those characters to life on the screen.” — Joe Morgenstern, Wall St Journal