Steal a Pencil for Me
Westlake Entertainment Group | Release Date: November 9, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
1
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleLeba Hertz
A terrific documentary about forbidden love in the most heinous of places. Read full review
88
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Amazingly, many of Jack's and Ina's letters survived and -- read aloud by Dutch actors Jeroen Krabbe and Ellen Ten Damme -- serve as the thematic thread that runs through Ohayon's film. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Gentle study in human resilience and luck. Read full review
80
Film ThreatZack Haddad
If you enjoy learning about the Holocaust and how dark a time it was, or you just like a good love story, then check this documentary out. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
If Michele Ohayon's absorbing documentary didn't provide the proof, you'd never believe the story she tells about Holocaust survivors Jack Polak and Ina Soep. Read full review
70
Village VoiceElla Taylor
At once tender and tough-minded, Steal a Pencil for Me offers a useful corrective to the sentimental prevailing notion that the Shoah only happened to saints. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
There have been dozens of Holocaust documentaries, and one could well argue that the world doesn't need another. But Michèle Ohayon's Steal a Pencil for Me offers a simple human story of dignity, levity and romance. Read full review
70
The New York TimesMatt Zoller Seitz
What makes Ms. Ohayon’s movie special is its recognition that epic horrors don’t erase private dramas. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
Tells this most unusual love story with grace and compassion. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubStaff (Not credited)
There's incredible feeling behind Steal A Pencil For Me--enough to sustain two lives throughout unimaginable hardship--but the film doesn't bring much of it to the surface. Read full review
60
VarietyJoe Leydon
Fortunately, helmer Michele Ohayon ("Cowboy del Amor") treats her tricky subject matter with sufficient sensitivity to keep doc from ever seeming offensively flip or overly sentimental. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
Although their love is undeniably a blessing, I was disconcerted watching the elderly couple smile and chuckle today as they recall their daily letters and secret meetings in the midst of such wide-scale death. Read full review
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