A Private Life
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: January 16, 2026 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
ColliderRoss BonaimeJan 17, 2026
A Private Life is worth exploring simply for the performance by Foster, which keeps this story moving the best she can, despite the screenplay’s constant starts and stops. If anything, the real mystery of A Private Life is why we don’t get to see Foster on our screens more these days. Read full review
60
The New YorkerRichard BrodyJan 16, 2026
Foster gives a taut performance despite the unstrung absurdities of the plot. The story is anchored in Paris’s Jewish community, but the context remains anecdotal and unexplored. Read full review
60
The RevealKeith PhippsJan 16, 2026
Played by Foster with flinty persistence, Lillian is part of the long, great tradition of memorably screwed-up sleuths and A Private Life makes it easy to wish we’d see her again in a sequel in which she pursues a case that’s worth her time and ours. Read full review
60
Time OutElizabeth WeitzmanJan 15, 2026
There’s something oddly appealing about the fact that Rebecca Zlotowski’s understated thriller, A Private Life, stubbornly refuses easy definition – other than as a modest romp that allows Jodie Foster to perform in another language. And if you’ll watch Foster acting in anything, you’re gonna love watching her do it in French. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 24, 2025
Vie Privée canters along to a faintly silly, slightly anticlimactic conclusion and audiences might have been expecting a bigger and more sensational twist. Yet Foster’s natural charisma sells it. Read full review
58
The PlaylistRafaela Sales RossMay 24, 2025
Whenever it leans into these poignant metaphors to ask questions of guilt and duty, A Private Life grasps at something real and raw. It’s a shame Zlotowski so willingly refuses to take her finger off that pulse, even if the result remains a pleasurable ride. Read full review
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