78
Metascore
31 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The Film StageRory O'ConnorThe Film StageRory O'ConnorThe great theme of Dickinson’s life, Davies argues, is finding solace — not in religion, but in art, and A Quiet Passion itself can boast such moments of quiet catharsis.
- 100Given its themes and the tragic circumstances of Dickinson's life, "Passion" is a refreshingly humorous work. Its firecracker dialogue is invigorating; the assured, measured compositions are equally compelling. And in its sensitivity to intersecting conflicts related to womanhood and class, it is quietly masterful.
- 100Time Out LondonDave CalhounTime Out LondonDave CalhounThe talk is pointed and careful in a household that savours the power and meaning of words, but it’s as much the imagery that makes this film such a painterly joy.
- 80The GuardianAndrew PulverThe GuardianAndrew PulverIt is Davies’ ability to invest even the most apparently-humdrum moments with some form of intense radiance that sustains his film.
- 70Screen DailyLee MarshallScreen DailyLee MarshallIf A Quiet Passion grows in stature as we watch, it’s partly thanks to Cynthia Nixon, whose account of a witty, intelligent, rebellious but also reticent and emotionally confused woman takes the edge off Davies’ sometimes grating formalism.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungThe Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungDespite a warmly interacting cast that includes Jennifer Ehle as Emily’s sister and Keith Carradine as her lion-maned, lionized father, and a valiant effort on the part of Nixon and Davies to externalize the poet’s inner demons in emotional, high-tension scenes, the film can’t escape an underlying static quality that extinguishes the flame before it can get burning.
- 60CineVueLucy PopescuCineVueLucy PopescuWhile Davies vividly captures the period's austerity and Dickinson's despair at being misunderstood, there are a few too many scenes of repressed emotion followed by wild outbursts of grief.
- 60EmpireJohn NugentEmpireJohn NugentThoughtful, emotional and often surprisingly funny, Terence Davies offers a rich if inconsistent portrait of a unique poet long deserving of a big-screen study.
- 42The PlaylistJessica KiangThe PlaylistJessica KiangIt's an overwrought, stagey muddle that suggests that Davies, ever a-quiver on the extreme high end of the sensitivity meter anyway, has quivered right off it and plunged into the depths of bathos.
- 40VarietyGuy LodgeVarietyGuy Lodge[Davies'] most mannered and least fulfilling work to date, A Quiet Passion boasts meticulous craft and ornate verbiage in abundance, but confines Cynthia Nixon’s melancholia-stricken performance as arguably America’s greatest poet in an emotional straitjacket of variously arch storytelling tones.