Divided We Fall

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment | Release Date: June 8, 2001

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

69	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Lisa Schwarzbaum

The tonal elegance of this black comedy set in a dark time -- is boldly dependent on performances that tug at taut lines of moral complexity. Read full review

Rita Kempley

Profound, powerful Czech import takes a tragicomic approach to the Holocaust, though unlike Benigni's film, the movie does not sentimentalize those caught up in the Nazi dragnet. Read full review

Kenneth Turan

Not only is the film that good, it's also that wonderfully, inescapably Czech. Read full review

Desmond Ryan

The film treats the ensuing issues of conscience and compromise with subtlety and warmth. Read full review

Jay Carr

The film's triumph - and it is a triumph - in the end rests on the ability of Hrebejk and his actors to convince us that they never stop being normal people.

Ella Taylor

Divided We Fall briskly, often hilariously, forbids us to wallow in the specious comfort of untainted local heroes or irredeemable villains. Read full review

Richard Schickel

The result is a lovely movie, one that allows its characters unexpected spurts of growth and regression, darkness and grace.

Desson Thomson

Based on a true story, the movie takes us through some harrowing times. Read full review

Bob Graham

Audiences will talk about how satisfying this movie is. Read full review

Jami Bernard

Parts of the movie play like French farce, but ultimately Hrebejk uses very simple cadences to unveil, movingly, the big picture. Read full review

Lou Lumenick

Hrebejik directs with a sure hand, deftly balancing comedy and drama in a most involving and satisfying manner.

Robert K. Elder

Has the literary richness, depth of character and tone that such a morally difficult, powerful narrative requires.

Joe Morgenstern

Bears no resemblance to the smarmy fraud that Roberto Benigni perpetrated in "Life Is Beautiful."

Mark Peranson

An amiable black comedy. Read full review

Dana Stevens

The filmmakers explore not only the banality of evil, but also the banality of goodness, and the ridiculousness, as well as the tragedy, of their collision. Read full review

Eddie Cockrell

Confronts an incendiary topic head-on with grace, style, compassion and exquisitely practical wit. Read full review

New Times (L.A.)Andy Klein

Were it not for the gravity of the setting, the movie could just as easily be a comedy -- with everybody play-acting and doors opening and shutting and the repercussions of lies multiplying geometrically -- as a drama. Read full review

Marrit Ingman

This a deeply humane and affecting movie, surprisingly gentle in spite of its black-comic tinge, and without the slightest hint of schmaltz. Read full review

J. Hoberman

In its compassionate absurdism and underlying dark humor, the movie seeks to reestablish contact with the Czech new wave. Read full review

Peter Rainer

Divided We Fall is intended to be restorative, but its wish fulfillments, while charming, are also a bit too gaga for that. Read full review

Michael Sragow

Divided We Fall has a lot going for it, but its Places in the Heart ending, sentimental and incongruous, helps ensure that it will not find a place in a demanding audience's heart or mind. Read full review

Mr. ShowbizMichael Atkinson

Demonstrates that even if you live in a country intimately familiar with fascist occupation, you might still not have the least clue how to communicate that experience on film.

TV Guide MagazineKen Fox

None of this is funny, the surreal touches are ridiculous and the final fantasy sequence, in which the nameless ghosts of the murdered Wiener family smile on Josef, is simply nauseating. Read full review