Private Fears in Public Places
IFC Films | Release Date: April 13, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Alain Resnais' 2006 adaptation of a British play by Alan Ayckbourn is a world apart from his earlier Ayckbourn adaptation, "Smoking/No Smoking"; that film tried to be as "English" as possible. But this time Resnais looks for precise French equivalents to British culture, and what emerges is one of his most personal works, intermittently recalling the melancholy "Muriel" and "Providence." Read full review
100
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Resnais employs all the tools of studio-bound moviemaking, silent-era to post-modern, in a way that is not only is consistently dazzling in a purely visual sense, but contains an empathy that lifts the picture to tragic heights even at those points at which it seems practically weightless. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
A masterpiece by any measure, is fresh, immediate and contemporary, but its wintry yet warm perspective is suffused with the wisdom and experience of a great filmmaker who turns 85 on June 2. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
The cast is tremendous; these actors work with Resnais like a well-oiled stock company that knows every trick and can communicate almost telepathically. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
It's a Parisian romantic roundelay with sundry couples connecting and disconnecting, but it looks and sounds like no sex comedy ever made: It's transcendentally yummy. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The grand old filmmaker frames each scene like a fine painting. And fake snow falls with happy artificiality between rueful vignettes. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Resnais and Ayckbourn care primarily about observing these characters' private and public faces, who they are and who they present themselves as. To that end, they've achieved a mood of enchanting intimacy. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJim Ridley
Resnais is now 84 years old; perhaps it takes eight decades of living to make a movie this compassionate, this confident--and this young. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
The film is accessible, pleasant, dreamy, a touch goofy and melancholic. Its modernist gestures are little more than stylistic tics, but there's an image of snow falling on two clasped hands that is almost rapturous. The role of the artist remains, for Mr. Resnais, the role of a lifetime. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Clever, wise and witty. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Resnais cuts constantly between the various narrative threads, signaling each change of scene with a superimposed shower of snowflakes; it's a highly artificial device, and a deceptively lovely one that reinforces the sense that all Ayckbourn's characters are slowly succumbing to an emotional chill. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
This is a minor film from a master, which is disappointing, but nevertheless it has its charms, most notably in the acting by a cast of stage and screen veterans. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The film is beautifully shot and edited, but these emotional snapshots won't stay long in the memory. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Private Fears says that life is a smoldering holding pattern, but Resnais is gracious enough to blanket the embers with eternal snow. Read full review
60
VarietyJay Weissberg
Despite a perfect cast of Resnais regulars plus the master's own impeccable crafting, the characters fail to grip, and with approximately 50 short scenes, development comes in fits and starts. Read full review
60
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
The picture is so suavely made that we don't feel disappointed until it is over: what chiefly holds us is the quality of the acting. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
I found the interlocking bitterness of Ayckbourn's play irritating and overly neat, and these people don't seem to belong to Paris or London or anywhere else, at least not anytime in the last 20 years. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
Suffers from Resnais' inability to open it up and give it the look and pulse of a film. Read full review
More From This Movie

77 Critic Reviews

6.8 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