72
Metascore
14 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- In Martin Provost’s graceful biopic, Emmanuelle Devos plays Leduc as a powder keg of a woman who used her loneliness and insecurity as the explosive fuel for her work.
- 90Village VoiceAbby GarnettVillage VoiceAbby GarnettProvost's film, like its heroine, is full of active, sparking nerves.
- 90The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla Dargis[A] handsome, intelligently absorbing and stirring biographical portrait.
- 80Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfIt’s a movie about coming to peace with solitude, leagues beyond most biopics.
- 75Slant MagazineDavid Lee DallasSlant MagazineDavid Lee DallasBy focusing on the tumultuous friendship between Violette LeDuc and Simone de Beauvoir, Martin Provost creates not so much a dichotomy of femininity as a funhouse mirror of it.
- 75New York PostFarran Smith NehmeNew York PostFarran Smith NehmeIn Devos’ hard-charging performance, she’s also fascinating, and that’s all a film requires.
- 75Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerChristian Science MonitorPeter Rainer“Séraphine” was haunting; Violette, for all its writhings, is familiar.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSan Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAs presented here, the novelist Violette Leduc is fascinating and strangely lovable, at least as seen from the audience. But actually knowing her? That would have been work.
- 50The DissolveAndrew LapinThe DissolveAndrew LapinIt’s a brutal argument to make: that the most relevant information to convey about the life of an influential writer is the fact that she struggled early and often. This approach may seem philosophically appropriate for a movie about existentialists, but dramatically, it makes the film a bit of a slog.
- 42The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloThe A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloA few excerpts of Leduc’s prose spoken in voiceover, expressing the same feelings poetically, can’t compensate for over two hours of maudlin self-pity. It’s so annoying that dull shots of Leduc writing serve as a welcome respite.