Metroland

Lions Gate Films | Release Date: April 9, 1999

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

53	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Owen Gleiberman

It's the rare portrait of a happy marriage that is honest about the complex currents of desire, and the drama is beautifully played by Bale, who gawks with soulful sweetness, and Watson, who does her most piercing work since "Breaking the Waves." Read full review

Kevin Thomas

A satisfying story of love and marriage told with humor and insight. Read full review

Roger Ebert

There are a lot of movies about escaping from the middle class, but Metroland is one of the few about escaping into it. Read full review

Peter Stack

A sexy, moody comedy that plays like a dreamy comic novel. Read full review

David Edelstein

While it's true that you can't pack as much psychological detail into a movie as you can into a novel, director Philip Saville and screenwriter Adrian Hodges bring out the yeasty subtext of even the most brittle encounters. Read full review

Richard Schickel

Metroland finally makes a good, subtle case for the bearable weightiness of middle-class being, for the higher morality of muddling through. Read full review

David Rooney

A witty script and strong performances hoist Metroland beyond the confines of its rather standard, TV-style approach. Read full review

Justine Elias

An unflashy tale of memory and desire in suburban London. Read full review

Michael O'Sullivan

It's a thoughtfully constructed story, with nuanced performances all around and even a mild surprise thrown in, but the whole thing feels ever so slightly enervated, like a game of chess between codgers in the park.

James Berardinelli

Director Philip Saville, working from a script by Adrian Hodges (which, in turn, is based on the novel by Julian Barnes), has crafted a competent, character-based tale, but the issues examined are stale, and Saville is unable to find a way to take the story to a newer, more interesting level Read full review

Walter Addiego

Metroland is a provocative rumination on how relationships are warped by two people's inability to be truthful with each other. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

This slight story of youthful dreams and adult compromise is bolstered by finely modulated performances from the three leads. Read full review

Renee Graham

Bale and Watson make most of the film more interesting and watchable than it might otherwise be, finding flesh and blood in a script that isn't always equal to their talents. [23 Apr 1999]

Lisa Alspector

This fairly serious meditation on conventionality and monogamy blames his ennui on external forces, remaining adolescent even when it suggests its hero has grown up. Read full review

Janet Maslin

Its strongest assets, aside from a performance by Ms. Watson that pierces through the nonsense, are Mark Knopfler's fine, expressive score and the attractiveness of its star. Read full review

Ann Hornaday

As a tasteful take on a minor novel, Metroland is genteel enough, but it lacks the urgency and scope of a must-see movie. [07 May 1999]

William Arnold

Conceptually, the film is unique - it's a kind of nostalgia movie within a nostalgia movie. [16 Apr 1999]

Tom Meek

The sexually charged undercurrent of Mertoland promises something dark, disturbing or at least provocative, but as the characters reach their defining moments, it's the plot that yields to the ordinary. Read full review

Ester Pan

Too bad the film ultimately fails to explore [provocative questions], falling instead to cliches. Read full review

Susan Wloszczyna

Bale tends to be overwrought and self-conscious as he wrestles with his demons, here in both '60s flashbacks (the liveliest segment) and in the 1977 present, in which punk clubs and easy women represent temptation. [09 Apr 1999]

Stephen Hunter

The movie is bittersweet, adult, with a fair eye toward men's eternal spirit of the infantile, and knowing. Possibly it's too slick, but in some awkward way it sums up the true essence of adult life, which is just sort of getting along without doing too much harm. [30 Apr 1999]

Jami Bernard

Bale fails to make Chris a character compelling enough to stand out from that heavy dose of '70s clothes and hair.

Ella Taylor

Replete with false dilemmas, assisted by a dreadfully stagy screenplay and directed with all the animation of a tableau vivant, Metroland is such a draggy bore.

Joe Morgenstern

Metroland, which is adapted from a novel by Julian Barnes, is an oddly unpleasant variation on the theme of "The Way We Were." [09 Apr 1999]