Memoir of War
Music Box Films | Release Date: August 17, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
RogerEbert.comMatt FagerholmAug 17, 2018
Among its many notable achievements, Memoir of War is one of the best films I’ve seen about the ways in which grief can pull a person in both directions simultaneously. Whereas the film’s first half plays more like a thriller, the second half proves to be an emotionally wrenching interlude perched on pins and needles. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichAug 15, 2018
Anchored by a brilliant Mélanie Thierry, whose stone-eyed lead performance is at the center of almost every frame, Finkiel’s film never betrays the distance that Duras inserted between herself and her own experiences, or that she wrote from the perspective of a vessel as much as she did a subject. Read full review
70
Film ThreatHunter LanierMar 1, 2019
Every once in a while, the story of an individual slips through the cracks. Memoir of War is one of those stories and, as such, provides an unseen perspective to a plotline that we all know well. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterNeil YoungJul 23, 2018
Thierry is utterly convincing and compelling from first to last, in a deglamorized but sensual performance of tautly controlled severity and uncompromising rigor. Read full review
70
VarietyGuy LodgeJul 23, 2018
Large as its historical canvas is, the film is most artful as an interior evocation of a preemptively grieving state of mind. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleAug 23, 2018
Resolutely somber, and self-aware about its deliberately tight and opaque visual style, it’s presentational more than lived, a series of filmmaking choices instead of something deeply felt and conveyed. Read full review
60
The New York TimesGlenn KennyAug 16, 2018
Ms. Thierry plays Marguerite with an understatement that can be enigmatic, seductive, or deliberately confounding. The picture as a whole doesn’t do justice to her committed performance. Read full review
50
Village VoiceSerena DonadoniAug 16, 2018
While clearly adoring Duras’s work, Finkiel doesn’t credit the strength it took for her to ruthlessly detail the experience. Read full review
45
Film Journal InternationalDoris ToumarkineAug 16, 2018
There are few elements of suspense or intrigue in this drama, as it’s largely an inward journey into Duras’ agonized, shaky state of mind over the unknown whereabouts of her Resistance-member husband, Robert Anselme. Read full review
40
The GuardianCath ClarkeMay 22, 2019
Mélanie Thierry does her best in the lead as Duras, but her character is maddeningly flat and dull. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicSamantha IncorvaiaSep 6, 2018
The story has potential and the acting is good, but the buildup is thrown away as the movie draws to a close. It feels divided, as if it were two different films. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAug 29, 2018
Writer/director Emmanuel Finkiel tries very hard to adapt Duras’ modernist storytelling tactics to Memoir of War and, at times, even succeeds in translating the author’s opaque blurring of the objective and the subjective. Read full review
More From This Movie

57 Critic Reviews

6.5 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 77 Project Hail Mary
2 75 Send Help
3 73 Hoppers
4 72 The Sheep Detectives
5 68 Crime 101
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL