[Moreau] now in her mid-70s, takes charge of her scenes with an iron-fisted authority that refuses to acknowledge the inert movie around her.

A film that revels in the insights of Duras' writing and the wisdom of Ms. Moreau's ripe experience as an actress -- a perfectly observed hommage to two extraordinary women of distinction, alone but never lonely.

Ms. Dayan is to be commended for breathing even often-painful life into a relationship that was largely sealed off from the world outside.

Overwhelmed by maudlin, somewhat empty musings on Art and Life.

Patient viewers will be rewarded with a satisfying film that brings the ideas as well as the passions of the renowned French author to life.

The famously difficult Duras comes off as a grumpy but lovable eccentric, a sort of Auntie Mame with bad moods, who encourages the puppyish Yann to find his own voice and follow his dream.

Moreau ... gives one of her richest performances.

Dayan's film is a bizarrely attenuated experience, neglecting dramatic substance and context ... in favor of swooning hagiography.