Child's Pose
Zeitgeist Films | Release Date: February 19, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerFeb 21, 2014
A lousy title for a marvelous movie. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranFeb 20, 2014
A ferocious psychological drama with the pace of a thriller, Child's Pose combines, as have the best of the Romanian new-wave films, a compelling personal story about mothers and sons with an examination of socio-political dynamics in a way that is both intense and piercingly real. Read full review
88
Washington PostAnn HornadayMar 13, 2014
A compelling, complex, confounding film. Read full review
88
Boston GlobePeter KeoughMar 6, 2014
Of all the great monster mothers in cinema history, Cornelia Keneres (Luminita Gheorghiu, who sets the standard other performances should be judged by this year) ranks high on the list. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyFeb 21, 2014
It's an extremely strong and upsetting film, yet another example of the fascinating things going on in Romania's new wave, with a breathtaking lead performance by Luminita Gheorghiu as Cornelia. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianJeff BakerApr 16, 2014
Throw in an unbearably gloomy plot involving overbearing or grieving parents and a pointed commentary on the corrupt, classist nature of modern Romania, and you're in for a downbeat evening. "The Lego Movie," this isn't. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensDec 15, 2014
It’s well worth seeing, both for its merciless anatomization of the country’s post-Ceausescu social order and for Gheorghiu’s stupendous central performance as a mother so monstrous she makes Medea look like a pushover. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 3, 2014
A Romanian political allegory — in Romanian — might sound like tough sledding, but thanks to a searing performance by Luminita Gheorghiu, Child's Pose is anything but. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternFeb 20, 2014
Growth is the film's subtext, and finally its subject. Never has a line of dialogue been more freighted with symbolism, or more grounded in literal reality, than when Barbu says, ever so quietly, "Mother, please unlock me." Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJordan HoffmanFeb 20, 2014
The movie creates its own tightening vice grip. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirFeb 20, 2014
A gripping psychological thriller built around the luminous and terrifying performance of Luminita Gheorghiu, who is something like the Meryl Streep of Romania. Read full review
80
Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonFeb 18, 2014
With Child's Pose, the Romanian tide enters its Cassavetes phase, where the thin ice of haute bourgeoisie life cracks and opens wide. Read full review
80
Time OutKeith UhlichFeb 18, 2014
A complex final scene — in which everyone finally lets the tears flow — only deepens the sense that well-meaning mother love can be as poisonous as it is nourishing. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawNov 3, 2013
Calin Peter Netzer's Child's Pose is a gripping new drama from Romania and another demonstration of how that country's new wave is developing a distinctive kind of real-time slice-of-life cinema with characterisation in extreme, pitiless closeup. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithFeb 19, 2014
As subtle and careful and slyly disturbing as Child’s Pose is though, it and many others of its genus suffer from an airlessness, pacing like the growth of algae, a dishwater color palate and a dirge-like monotone. Read full review
75
The PlaylistJessica KiangJul 9, 2013
The last quarter of Child's Pose is so remarkably strong that it makes a sometimes grim journey worth sticking with to its destination. Read full review
70
The DissolveScott TobiasFeb 19, 2014
Through it all, Gheorghiu finds the perfect pitch between a mother’s love for her child and a kind of pathology. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloFeb 19, 2014
Sporting a blonde dye job and a haughty, impervious manner, Gheorghiu makes Cornelia a consistently compelling figure, at once monstrous and pathetic. Read full review
65
NPRElla TaylorFeb 21, 2014
Like the (far superior) recent Russian film "Elena," Child's Pose paints a compelling portrait of post-Soviet capitalism in all its uncorked appetites, its brash cronyism and graft, its pretensions, its clueless philistinism. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoFeb 17, 2014
The film thrives on ambiguity, keeping all things blurry outside its main character's focused perspective, its myopia sustained by Luminița Gheorghiu's tough, quietly intense performance. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisFeb 18, 2014
It’s too bad that the filmmakers don’t allow an occasional breath of air into the sepulchral proceedings or ease up on the increasingly heavy-handed lessons. Read full review
60
Total FilmTom DawsonNov 3, 2013
The restlessness of the camerawork may drive you to distraction, but director/co-writer Calin Peter Netzer’s film is held steady by Gheorghiu’s staunch performance. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonTrevor JohnstonOct 29, 2013
Child’s Pose plays its thematic cards far too early, but it’s sustained by Gheorghiu’s compelling central turn as the endlessly self-deluding grande dame. Read full review
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