Flanders
International Film Circuit | Release Date: May 18, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
3
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Unspeakable brutality ensues, including a rape, a castration and cold-blooded murder. Dumont never mentions Iraq, but the parallels are clear. Read full review
88
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
With very little dialogue and lingering shots of the landscape -- always a very important visual trope in Dumont's deep-psyche explorations -- the film is nevertheless tighter and, clocking in at under 90 minutes, relatively brief. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Except for the tractors, and the tanks in the later desert battle sequences, Flanders could be taking place centuries ago. Or centuries from now. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
The film arrives at a familiar conclusion -- that war is hell -- but the getting there is made uniquely unsettling by Dumont's relentlessly anti-psychological disposition. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
Nonprofessional actors Boidin and Leroux deliver intense performances which shoulder the emotional weight of the film. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid Parkinson
Harrowing and complex, this study in terror is not for the faint of heart. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Flanders, which takes us from the rustic heartland of northern France to the killing fields of an unnamed foreign locale, has such a primitive poetry, we are moved even by its most gruesome moments. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Staff (Not credited)
With razor-sharp precision, Dumont interweaves scenes of battle with the unravelling of a young woman back home, involved with two of the soldiers. But this is not bleakness just for the sake of it. When it arrives, the ray of hope rings perfectly true for being so devoid of artifice. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Underneath the seeming blandness of its presentation -- the sparse dialogue, the affectless characters -- there's a ferocious and caustic view of humanity. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
This film has few tangible pleasures, such as some somber shots of Demester walking far away in a field. Its achievement is theoretical. It wants to depict lives that are without curiosity, introspection and hope. Read full review
70
VarietyDeborah Young
A somber, beautifully acted reflection on the barbarity of war and the bestiality of man. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Whether you like or loathe Mr. Dumont’s movies, his unsettling vision of humanity stripped of cultural finery feels profoundly truthful. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Once again, Dumont cycles through the pet themes of films like "L'Humanité" and "Twentynine Palms," but their repetition is beginning to seem like shtick. Read full review
60
Film ThreatPhil Hall
Bruno Dumont’s Flanders is something you don't see everyday: a decidedly non-sentimental love story. Read full review
50
PremiereAaron Hillis
As a fan, it's upsetting to admit that Dumont's ideas and insights have narrowed with this picture, his relaxed pacing now lethargic, his physically and mentally thick characters too familiar, and his ice-water shocks a bit predictable. It would seem self-parodic if it weren't so damn tragic. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Dumont is much more confident when he sticks to the title town and the young woman the men left behind; his habit of alternating close shots with extreme long shots and his singularly unsentimental way of showing sex are as distinctive as ever. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
A powerful film of suffering and sacrifice and desperation. But it's vacuous, banal, and, where its mix of sentiment and grisliness is concerned, rather despicable. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Pretentious to the core and lacking any context or credible characterizations. Read full review
30
Village VoiceNathan Lee
Flanders is, dontcha know, a state of mind, and Dumont is plain out of his. Read full review
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