Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time
Greenwich Entertainment | Release Date: January 22, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Irish TimesTara BradyMar 19, 2021
The second feature by Hungarian writer-director Horvat plays in the thin space between love, madness and consciousness. There are pleasing overlaps with Alain Resnais’s Je T’aime Je T’aime and An Affair to Remember, but Preparations is unique. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJan 21, 2021
As its delightfully loquacious title suggests, Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time is both methodical and enigmatic. It’s a movie that sees no real contradiction between the rational and irrational, only degrees of difference. The instinctive intelligence and curiosity that Márta brings to her emotional investigation, tempered by the kind of humility that only comes with great knowledge, is what makes her such an involving protagonist — someone you naturally want to follow down any rabbit hole that may present itself. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comCarlos AguilarJan 22, 2021
While the film loses some of its mesmerizing potency in the climax and subsequent wrap-up, it's still a beautiful and acute rendering of what could be if some of the most implausible lies we tell ourselves were in fact true. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineDiego SemereneJan 18, 2021
Lili Horvát’s film delights in wallowing in ambiguity, contradiction, and doubt. Read full review
80
Little White LiesElena LazicDec 29, 2021
Far from a humiliating and cruel character assassination, this film is a study of the limits of perception that is tender and unsettling in equal measure. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeMar 21, 2021
This crystalline tale of memory, love and brain surgery from writer-director Lili Horvát (who made 2015’s The Wednesday Child) is a treat – sinewy, seductive and beautifully strange. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJan 22, 2021
Movies are seldom flawless and don’t have to be. This one speaks more eloquently to how a spell can be woven rather than broken. Read full review
80
The New York TimesBeatrice LoayzaJan 21, 2021
A noirish psychodrama simmering with ambiguities, the film cleverly toys with our perception by loosening our heroine’s grip on reality. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJan 29, 2021
What sets this film apart is its fusing of the impassioned and the grimly palpable. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonJan 19, 2021
This haunting slow-burn psychodrama is superbly acted and quietly gripping, despite some minor plot wobbles and that cumbersome title. Read full review
67
The Film StageMichael FrankJan 28, 2021
It hinges on a shade of obsession and a hint of delusion, but if anything, it shows how much the mind can swirl when life doesn’t go as expected, as it rarely does. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiJan 22, 2021
Preparations successfully trades narrative authority for a more provisional path, and much like its main character, remains wholly enigmatic. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 17, 2021
It is at once a relief and an obscure disappointment that the mystery is not left enigmatically unsolved. Read full review
60
CineVueMatthew AndersonMar 2, 2021
The pacing and lack of incident may detract from the overall emotional investment we have for Horvát’s latest, but in its construction of a murky intrigue, composed visual style and Stork’s exceptional performance, there’s enough to make the journey home to Budapest a worthwhile visit. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloJan 19, 2021
Eventually, Preparations has to stop preparing and deliver some sort of answer to its central mystery, even if that turns out to be one of those maddening or exhilarating (according to taste and/or how skillfully it’s handled) shoulder shrugs. Sadly, the reveal here is quite banal, which retroactively makes the film as a whole play like a prolonged, unsatisfying tease. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrJan 26, 2021
Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Time is a lovely visit to a Budapest that yields its secrets more willingly than the sad, repressed woman at the story’s center. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Sep 16, 2020
Preparations inspires intrigue, then curiously squanders it. Read full review
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