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Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Critic Consensus: No consensus yet.
All Critics (19) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (15) | Rotten (4)
The pace is an anti-ornamental affectation that artificially distends an hour's worth of action.
Diaz has made an epic-length small film about the powerless, one full of moral urgency that he chooses to elongate and slow down to a crawl. It's a quiet consideration of grief and mercy, of control taken and freely given up.
That a film this busy can find such focus in its closing moments says that whatever Diaz's methods of inspiration and creation, he knows exactly what he's doing.
The film makes uncompromising demands on your attention and your empathy. But it is also illuminating and, in its downbeat, deliberate way, exhilarating.
The Woman Who Left may not be a movie for everyone, but if you allow yourself to settle into its leisurely tempo and marinate in its heroine's journey, it can be a richly rewarding experience.
The film boasts one of Diaz's most dramatically conventional, involving, and satisfying narratives.
There's no hope in The Woman Who Left, merely the image of what disappears.
Simultaneously bleak and illuminated, The Woman Who Left is not just about revenge, moral integrity, and opportunity. It's about life...a life you didn't choose to live but you are compelled to.
A intense morality tale about the resilience of a good-hearted woman.
The characters here are so vividly drawn and performed, and the contemplative mood so remarkably sustained, that the film casts a genuinely suspenseful and mesmerizing spell over the span of its nearly four hours.
It suffers by resembling arty, didactic bloat when it most begs for a more sophisticated dramatic touch.
If you last through the finale, you might feel that Diaz's lessons-bite-size compared to Tolstoy's-have been consumed along the way, leaving nothing but peanut shells.
Diaz creates a compelling and tragic revenge tale despite its long running time, with a beautiful cinematography and great performances, even if he continues to show a disdain for pacing and makes his film seem unfocused before Horacia and Hollanda become friends.
Super Reviewer
Review soon.
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