Le Havre
Janus Films | Release Date: October 21, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
82
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayDec 8, 2011
Le Havre is a playful parable that conveys profound truths about compassion, humility and sacrifice. It offers proof that miracles do happen - especially in Kaurismaki's lyrically hardscrabble neighborhood. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyNov 3, 2011
Le Havre, offers the director's usual humour, pitch-perfect acting and compassionate message, with a Gallic twist that should win new converts. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertNov 2, 2011
This movie is as lovable as a silent comedy, which it could have been. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumNov 2, 2011
The setting is somewhere between a post-WWII Brigadoon and the environs of Marcel Carn classic "Children of Paradise," but the story is as timely as this morning's news from Europe. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnOct 17, 2011
With its bouncy soundtrack, deadpan humor and good-natured disposition, Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki's Le Havre is an endearing affair. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirOct 21, 2011
For the right kind of film buff, it's absolutely one of the most enjoyable pictures of the year - and if you've never heard of the guy before, I can't imagine a better place to start. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranOct 21, 2011
Buster Keaton isn't dead, he's alive and well in Finland, where under a new identity he pursues his own particular brand of deadpan absurdism to wonderful effect. If the name Aki Kaurismäki doesn't mean anything to you, it should, and Le Havre may be the film to make it happen. Read full review
90
MovielineStephanie ZacharekOct 21, 2011
Le Havre proceeds from the usual Kaurismäkian premise: Things are only going to get worse, so why not just go with it? Read full review
88
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisNov 10, 2011
The achievement of this movie is that Kaurismäki manages the seemingly impossible task of making a farce about farces. In other words, this is a very good movie in quotation marks and a very good movie. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 3, 2011
Does Kaurismaki believe in his own fairy tale? The movie, a humble delight, suggests the answer is yes. Read full review
88
Slant MagazinePhil ColdironOct 17, 2011
For Carl Dreyer, to film a miracle took a single shot; for Bruno Dumont, a whole film. In Le Havre, Aki Kaurismäki needs four shots to capture his - and what an ordinary event it is! Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc MohanJan 26, 2012
Kaurismäki is a master of expressive stillness for whom inaction often speaks louder than words, and the performances he elicits are perfectly pitched, including young Miguel's. Read full review
80
Total FilmTom DawsonMar 26, 2012
Kaurismäki adeptly weaves rockabilly musical interludes, a stylised colourscheme and droll performances into a warm-hearted salute to both classical French cinema and working-class solidarity. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 10, 2011
Le Havre is a small bit of movie magic, a story that plays more as a fable even as it deals with something as topical as immigration. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderBen SachsNov 3, 2011
The film is especially comforting if you love old movies, as Kaurismaki does: his deadpan humor and deliberately flattened images evoke silent comedy, as usual, and his rosy depiction of proletarian camaraderie recalls the 30s and 40s work of Marcel Carné (particularly Le Jour se Leve). Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 20, 2011
A stylized and sentimental fairy tale about the way the world might be, grounded in a frank recognition of the way it is. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 20, 2011
Le Havre stands on its own fragile but considerable merits. Read full review
80
VarietyLeslie FelperinOct 18, 2011
Mixing together some of helmer Aki Kaurismaki's favorite Gallic and Finnish thesps with a few newbies, Le Havre feels like a welcoming family reunion. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. HobermanOct 18, 2011
Le Havre is utopian precisely because it shows everything as it is not. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 10, 2011
Kaurismäki stalwart Kati Outinen, as the old man's silent and ailing wife, is the key to the movie, even though she appears only sporadically. Something in her timid, understanding and impassive gaze, which is Kaurismäki's gaze as well, lets us know that she sees things in the old man that we don't see. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. MusettoOct 21, 2011
Le Havre is warm-hearted and uplifting, without being schmaltzy or preachy. And, with its illegal-alien theme, it's dead-on timely. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenNov 3, 2011
The film is really a story about community and how it unites for something it deems important. But more, it is a story about mood and tone. Kaurismäki's mordant humor – part verbal, part visual – remains intact. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasOct 19, 2011
Kaurismäki has a narrow vision, disarming and sweet, yet utterly predictable, and there's little distinction between the films he's directing today and the films he directed 30 years ago. They have the wrong kind of timelessness. Read full review
60
EmpireGuy LodgeApr 2, 2012
It may not be up there with his very best, but Aki Kaurismäki offers a reminder that he's a still one of the freshest voices in cinema. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanOct 21, 2011
No one looks at the world quite like Kaurismäki, and his deadpan sentimentality is worth discovery. This is a good place to start. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfOct 18, 2011
This is textbook Kaurismäki, neither fresh nor unwelcome. Read full review
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