49 Up
First Run Features | Release Date: October 6, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
84
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
49 Up is a precious document, and must viewing. Read full review
100
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
The latest riveting, heartbreaking chapter to one of the supreme creations of documentary filmmaking, the "7 Up" series. Read full review
100
New York PostKyle Smith
Dropping by on the same people every seven years like an old friend - or an unwelcome relative - Apted has constructed a peerless, suspenseful work that develops character to a depth that would make Tolstoy jealous. If you have any interest in documentaries, watch the DVD of the first film, "7 Up" (49 Up hits DVD Nov. 14). You won't be able to stop. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy Burr
No matter their wealth or social status, these people share disappointments and elations and a sense that life, in the end, may be what life is about. Read full review
100
PremiereAaron Hillis
How 49 Up differs from its precursors for the better is that it's the first to have its participants interact with Apted the filmmaker, no longer a one-sided interviewer. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
If you haven't gotten hooked already on Michael Apted's series--collectively, one of the great documentaries in the history of the cinema--you should prepare yourself for the latest installment, 49 Up. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
This seventh installment is utterly fascinating. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
I am not British, was born 14 years before the subjects, and yet by now identify intensely with them, because some kinds of human experience -- teenage, work, marriage, illness are universal. You could make this series in any society. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck
Michael Apted's landmark films documenting the lives of a disparate group of Brits in seven-year intervals have always been fascinating from a sociological perspective. But the latest installment proves that they are undeniably brilliant cinematically as well. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
One of the best things about Michael Apted's uniquely ambitious and continuing documentary series on the lives of a group of British schoolchildren is that you don't have to have seen the last one to enjoy the next. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
A solid starting point for those unfamiliar with Apted's greatest work, and a must-see for those who have been down this road before. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
The passage of time has rarely been more forcefully conveyed in a movie, as we see clips of the interviewees not only from today but also at seven-year intervals from the past. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
While all the "Up" films hold a fascination akin to a Christmas letter from an almost-forgotten friend, 42 Up didn't show much progress from "35 Up." Even fans of the series had to wonder whether the faces of England were going to remain permanently frozen. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Their pain is our pleasure, for though occasionally Apted's bluntness makes you want to take a bite out of his neck, there's something immensely satisfying about watching the playing out of ordinary lives we've become attached to over time. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Suzy's marriage, Nick's divorce, Paul's work history: none of it is my or anyone else's business. But these things -- these people -- have become, through Mr. Apted's films, a vital part of modern life, which seems to grow richer every seven years, when the new "Up" movie comes out. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
49 Up is more than a deeply satisfying movie; it's a reminder of the wonder contained in ordinary lives. Read full review
80
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
The segments are so cleverly arranged--Apted includes past pictorial references for each of the people we revisit--that now there is something almost mystical involved. It is as if a wizard were giving us an overview of forty-two years that mortals were possibly not meant to see. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
What the series means in the long run is anybody's guess; I just know I sleep better at night knowing it's out there. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Taken as a whole, these films constitute one of the greatest uses of cinema a documentary filmmaker has ever devised. Like the other films in the series, 49 Up is alternately touching and mundane, part soap opera, part reality show and part anthropological study. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
Because the subjects are all mellowing into grandparenthood and their abrasive, wilder days are behind them, this particular "scrapbook" isn't as heavy hitting and hard-edged as its predecessors. Read full review
70
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Moving and ambitious in scale like nothing else in cinema, Michael Apted's Up films began in 1964 as a BBC news program exploring an old Jesuit maxim: "Give me the child until he is seven, and I will show you the man." Read full review
70
Washington PostDesson Thomson
The more you watch, the more you are committing yourself to watching "56 Up" and beyond. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Profoundly different from the others. On the cusp of their half-century mark, Apted's British subjects have accommodated themselves to what they were, what they are, and what they will be. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldMarta Barber
For Americans, the film may be best taken as fodder for debate, especially for individuals interested in sociology. You wonder why those people stuck to the commitment. You may also wonder how different a parallel American film would've been. Read full review
60
VarietyEddie Cockrell
It doesn't make for involving drama, unless the audience is already invested in the subjects' fortunes. Thus, 49 Up will have more appeal for long-time followers than newcomers. Read full review
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