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Irina Palm (2007)

tomatometer

68

Average Rating: 6/10
Reviews Counted: 47
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 15

A strong performance from Faithfull anchors this perverse and lethargic -- but ultimately thought-provoking -- Garbarski drama.

53

Average Rating: 5.7/10
Critic Reviews: 15
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 7

A strong performance from Faithfull anchors this perverse and lethargic -- but ultimately thought-provoking -- Garbarski drama.

audience

77

liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 5,500

My Rating

Movie Info

Legendary rocker Marianne Faithfull (of "As Tears Go By" and Broken English fame) stars in director Sam Garbarski's gently observed comedy drama Irina Palm (2007). She portrays Maggie, a working-class fiftysomething increasingly desperate to cover the cost of her ailing grandson's (Corey Burke) operation. When denied one loan and prospective job after another, a hopeless Maggie plunges headfirst into the underground skin trade of Soho London and prostitutes herself, under the aegis of new boss

Aug 12, 2008

Strand Releasing

All Critics (48) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (33) | Rotten (16) | DVD (5)

A pleasingly sentimental British domestic drama.

June 13, 2008 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

takes the notion of risqué empowerment a few preposterous steps further.

June 13, 2008 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comment
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Although director and co-writer Sam Garbarski takes great care in tracing this difficult dramatic path (he has to balance the twin tracks of other people's morality and Maggie's personal course), he can't avoid the predictability.

May 16, 2008 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This would never have worked with anyone else but Faithfull, who gives a touching performance even as she flaunts her 40-year metamorphosis from porcelain pop diva to elderly bad girl.

May 16, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Irina Palm is saddled with an odd title, an outlandish plot and an unlikely star--notorious rock maven Marianne Faithfull cast as a suburban frump. But it turns out a success

May 15, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | Comment
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Even if there aren't many other reasons to give this contrived and too often silly film a chance, Faithfull makes a captivating leading lady.

May 2, 2008 Full Review Source: Boston Globe | Comment
Boston Globe
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Un drama sensible y austero, no exento de cierto sentido del humor, que deja de lado cualquier aspecto sórdido del asunto para concentrarse en una historia de amor y sacrificio.

December 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Uruguay Total | Comment
Uruguay Total

A gobsmackingly awful British film -- awful in the way that somehow only British films can be: our TV drama, of whatever quality, is never as creaky, naive, badly written and flatulent as this.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comment
Guardian [UK]

Engaging, enjoyable and quietly thought-provoking British drama with a refreshingly offbeat script and a great central performance from Marianne Faithfull.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: ViewLondon | Comment
ViewLondon

Irina Palm blows but Marianne Faithfull gives it her all.

August 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

Garbarski combines social satire, hand jobs, feminism, and romantic grace to create a tenderhearted tale of found love and female empowerment. And he actually pulls it off, give the guy a hand. On second thought...

July 30, 2008 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment
NewsBlaze

Garbarski combines social satire, hand jobs, feminism, and romantic grace to create a tenderhearted tale of found love and female empowerment. And he actually pulls it off, give the guy a hand. On second thought...

July 30, 2008 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment
NewsBlaze

The performances will keep you watching, and make Irina Palm well worth seeing.

June 13, 2008 Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | Comment
Jam! Movies

There's a heartwarming quality that softens the hardcore setting but this does lack an assured, er, hand.

June 13, 2008 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

Irina Palm is a showcase for Faithfull but it never truly allows her to shine.

June 8, 2008 Full Review Source: KPBS.org | Comment
KPBS.org

At first blush, it seems like another entry in the saucy-but-safe Brit genre, a la Calendar Girls, Saving Grace or The Full Monty, but it turns out to be both more ambitious and less successful than those diversions.

May 30, 2008 Full Review Source: Oregonian | Comment
Oregonian
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Irina Palm

Irina Palm is a perverse tale of the odd sacrifice of a desperate grandmother for her terminally-ill grandson. Grace amid shame. Genuinely sentimental. Well-delivered.

September 10, 2011
Jan Marc Macababayao

Super Reviewer

Indifference British film in the drama story of a retired grandmother who acts to raise the cash in a fashion that surprises everyone, but her for her own terminally ill grandson's health deteriorates. I'm sick of sexual activities what a retired grandmother works for in the 'Sexy World', but I liked sexy strippers the

August 18, 2008
deano
Dean McKenna

Super Reviewer

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