A United Kingdom
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: February 10, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
16
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldFeb 23, 2017
The chemistry between the two actors is a pleasure. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniFeb 16, 2017
Rosamund Pike is adorable, if a little too ethereal and flighty. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 9, 2017
It's a tender love story that never goes soft on its provocations. It's a defiant cry from the heart. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattFeb 9, 2017
It’s their quiet devotion and enduring dignity that give A United Kingdom not just a romantic center, but its soul. Read full review
83
IndieWireKate ErblandSep 17, 2016
Bolstered by real events and true emotion, A United Kingdom opts for genuine, hard-won feeling, and the film studiously backs off from cheesy moments or over-the-top revelations. Read full review
80
The New York TimesGlenn KennyFeb 9, 2017
While her filmmaking style can sometimes come across as staid, [Ms. Asante's] sense of pace is always acute. The best reason to see A United Kingdom, however, is the performance by Mr. Oyelowo. Read full review
80
EmpireHelen O'HaraNov 21, 2016
It glides romantically along on the surface while political turmoil boils away underneath. Its plea for tolerance isn’t subtle, but it’s a story that deserves to be told. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 17, 2016
Maybe any biopic risks naïveté in suggesting the agony of postwar Africa can be soothed by a love story about a handsome prince. But this movie has candour, heartfelt self-belief, and an unfashionable conviction that love conquers all - though not immediately. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungSep 17, 2016
Though Asante is no stylist or and no very deep psychologist, she is adept at reaching an audience through direct storytelling. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Johanna SchnellerFeb 23, 2017
Director Amma Asante (Belle) is carving a niche for herself, making gorgeous-looking cinema from untold histories. Her best asset here is Oyelowo. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonFeb 23, 2017
Cinema often shines a light on stories that might have been lost to history, and that’s certainly true of A United Kingdom. Read full review
75
Boston GlobePeter KeoughFeb 16, 2017
Unlike “Belle,” however, in this case Asante does not allow her story to be overwhelmed by period decor and costumes. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 15, 2017
Although A United Kingdom has a social agenda, it is first and foremost a love story. Like "Loving," it’s about how the affection between a man and a woman of different races affects not only their immediate social circles but has ripples that wash over the entire world and impact history. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 15, 2017
Thanks in large part to the genuine movie-star charisma of David Oyelowo and to the breathtakingly beautiful on-location cinematography in Botswana, here we are with the arrow pointing up. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedFeb 14, 2017
The theme is nothing new, and the film has no shortage of clumsy biopic clichés, but sometimes we need to see the simplicity of humanity at its best. On that score, this movie delivers in spades. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJake ColeFeb 4, 2017
The Amma Asante film's broade sociopolitical overview is balanced by the intimate attention paid to the leads. Read full review
75
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonOct 6, 2016
The filmmaker has a real gift for getting into the political context of her stories while never neglecting the personal, and seeing the Khamas gradually win over his people, while still battling the British establishment, is gripping, rewarding and eventually moving. Read full review
75
ConsequenceSarah KurchakSep 17, 2016
A United Kingdom hits all of the necessary emotional notes and political intrigue of a solid historical figure drama. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranFeb 9, 2017
A United Kingdom is traditional, well-made cinema, with a taste for the obvious at certain points, but it has some powerful advantages. These include its remarkable story (Susan Williams’' book "Colour Bar" was a primary source), plus a director who knows how to convey its essence and a superior cast whose presence elevates the material. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneFeb 6, 2017
On the whole, Asante’s movie, though crammed with the white man’s treachery, has a dulled and inoffensive sheen, and cannot match the visual rigor that Ava DuVernay brought to “Selma.” Read full review
70
Screen DailyWendy IdeSep 17, 2016
A workmanlike and sometimes clumsy screenplay is not enough to extinguish the spark from this real-life fairytale romance, which delivers both a heartfelt emotional story and a grim lesson in 20th-century British foreign policy. Read full review
67
The Film StageJared MobarakSep 17, 2016
Seretse and Ruth eventually stop being individuals, transforming instead into a concept of strength and unity bolstering the real plot despite initially seeming as though they were building it. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 28, 2017
It makes for a warm history lesson about a country and a love affair that prefigured a change in a corner of the world where the news, for decades, was dominated by violence, injustice and fear. Read full review
63
Washington PostStephanie MerryFeb 16, 2017
Although the relationship lacks a certain fire, the acting is superb. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireFeb 10, 2017
For a movie about two people who loved each other so deeply, they risked losing everything to be together—their families, homes, even their countries — A United Kingdom plays it frustratingly safe. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMar 8, 2017
As she tells that story, Asante gets a little lost in the weeds here and there in the political machinations, which don't always make for a riveting narrative and tends to slow the film's forward momentum. Even as it does, the love story between Seretse and Ruth serves nicely as the film's foundation. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaFeb 16, 2017
Despite all its noble qualities, the movie boasts a stiffness that keeps it from ever feeling fully alive. Read full review
60
CineVueMatthew AndersonNov 23, 2016
A United Kingdom is a solid, competently made and gorgeously photographed film, but its exploration of complex issues - race, gender, politics and affairs of state - feels rather safe throughout, their full impact and import somewhat dialled back. Read full review
60
ScreenCrushE. Oliver WhitneySep 17, 2016
The real treasure of A United Kingdom is the tender chemistry between Oyelowo and Pike, whose scenes together offer the film’s best moments. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 17, 2016
Pike and Oyelowo have a hearty, wholemeal chemistry together, and play their small moments with sincerity and a light elegance. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonSep 17, 2016
A United Kingdom is just a little too cosy and sentimental for its own good. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerFeb 8, 2017
The movie falls short of delivering a memorable experience of its own. Outside of confirming its stars’ presence, A United Kingdom is more valuable as history than filmmaking. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisMar 1, 2017
It honors this extraordinary couple’s defiant and unwavering love for each other, but it doesn’t celebrate it much beyond a cliched falling-in-love montage and a chaste wedding-night scene. You can look, but you better not touch. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 16, 2017
It’s not a bad film, just, strangely, not a good one. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerFeb 10, 2017
At least “Hidden Figures” was savvy enough to please its crowds. A United Kingdom, with its saintly good folk and sneering bad folk emptily exhorting, is closer to a dry historical tutorial. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithFeb 9, 2017
A touching love story that gets sidelined by a tiresome intra-family African political dispute, A United Kingdom has a big heart that beats far too slowly. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternFeb 9, 2017
What’s unusual, and admirable, about the film is its close concern with colonialist machinations that make Seretse and Ruth the pawns of implacable power. What’s unfortunate is that Ms. Asante’s direction and Mr. Hibbert’s script aren’t up to the dramatic task; the pace grows slower as the couple’s plight deepens. Read full review
50
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 17, 2016
These two are meant to be together, as the film’s clever title suggests, though all the truly interesting things they accomplished happen only after that reunion. Read full review
40
TheWrapSteve PondFeb 9, 2017
The beats are too predictable — and even though the film tells a story we may not have known until now, the storytelling is too familiar. Read full review
40
Village VoiceApril WolfeFeb 7, 2017
Asante’s already proven she can world-build while wrangling a romance with her indie hit Belle, but she needs a jewel of a script, and this one is no diamond. Read full review
40
We Got This CoveredBrogan MorrisNov 25, 2016
A United Kingdom is well-intentioned, with impassioned performances from Oyelowo and Pike, but it's executed as drily and inoffensively as so many middling Brit period dramas. Read full review
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