I'm Going Home
Milestone Film & Video | Release Date: August 14, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
88
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Piccoli gives one of the most nuanced performances of his distinguished career, but the primary star of the movie is de Oliveira, who unfolds the story with unfailing skill and sensitivity. Read full review
100
VarietyDeborah Young
Elusive and elliptical as it is, this is one of the most accessible films in Oliveira's recent repetoire. Read full review
100
New Times (L.A.)Gregory Weinkauf
The confusing, demanding role finally brings the actor home, and us with him. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
One of the most beautiful of all recent films on the problems of old age -- and on the interplay of theater and life. Read full review
100
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Simple, yet quietly astonishing film. Read full review
100
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
I’m Going Home is as much an ambiguous poem to Paris as it is a study in artistic and physical mortality, and an elegy for a more decent past as it gives way to a brassier, more corrupt new century. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The result is something as original as it is unlikely: a study in grief that is flooded with happiness. Read full review
90
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Viewers who come to this delicate creation with expectations of just another quaint or sad story are in for a surprise. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
By far the most approachable of the director's recent films, with an emotional depth that's true to life and a streamlined narrative that for long stretches barely contains a word. Read full review
90
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Gives you the steady pulse of life in a beautiful city viewed through the eyes of a character who, in spite of tragic loss and increasing decrepitude, knows in his bones that he is one of the luckiest men alive. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeDamon Smith
Richly allusive and eloquently stylized. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Director Manoel de Oliveira's minimalist, incomparably moving I'm Going Home ranks with John Huston's "The Dead" as one of the great works by a director at his twilight. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
From his wonderfully idiosyncratic bits of silent comedy at a storefront window to a brilliant one-take of Malkovich watching a calamitous scene unfold, de Oliveira seems determined to exit on his own terms. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
In a startling move, Oliveira devotes the first 15 minutes of the film to the final moments of Ionesco's play, and it's thrilling to watch. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
With this moving, contemplative portrait of an artist who has suddenly become an old man, de Oliveira refuses to patronize either his hero or his audience. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Veteran French star Michel Piccoli is superb as an aging actor named Gilbert Valence. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleCarla Meyer
A famous French actor using his art to work through the loss of his wife and daughter in a car accident. The strategy works, at least for a while. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
There are a few movies where you can palpably sense the presence of the director behind the camera, and I'm Going Home is one of them. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Oliviera's mastery is a joy to experience and his bittersweet comic touch adds a loving absurdity to what could have turned maudlin or morose. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Restrained, precise, and unobtrusively wry. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
The story told by I'm Going Home is small and perhaps not terribly universal. But there's something poignant about an artist of 90-plus years taking the effort to share his impressions of life and loss and time and art with us. Read full review
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