The Keeping Room
Drafthouse Films | Release Date: September 25, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
12
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
IndieWireEric KohnSep 13, 2014
Even as The Keeping Room plays with formulaic ingredients, it manages to combine them into an eloquent portrait of gender, race and the constant march of time without overstating any of its potent themes. Read full review
80
CineVueBen NicholsonOct 16, 2014
Quieter moments do punctuate the tension - though the mood never sheds the lingering stench of impending death - and the characters are allowed time to breathe and inject a little colour to their long-standing relationships. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerMolly EichelOct 6, 2015
The Keeping Room looks at the brutality of humanity. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 18, 2015
The finale Barber and actress-turned-screenwriter Julia Hart deliver is righteously, remorselessly satisfying. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinSep 26, 2015
The Keeping Room is slow and rather arty, with a chamber-music (plus harmonica and fiddle) score and cinematography that shrouds the faces in shadow. But it’s a fine piece of storytelling and earns its look and feel. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlSep 22, 2015
The film's frustrating, fascinating, at times too eager to shock. But it's also daring and eccentric. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiSep 30, 2015
A ruthlessly satisfying thriller, The Keeping Room will linger with the viewer long after the credits roll. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerOct 29, 2015
While the gender-based farmhouse siege is suspenseful and bloody, director Daniel Barber weighs in too heavily with extended silences that slow down the goings-on of a film that has darkly lit tension, lovely scenery and fiercely presented ideas on feminism. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaSep 25, 2015
The Keeping Room does exceed “The Beguiled” with its progressive gender politics and morose minimalist approach. But when it comes to presenting a more watchable story, the older film would be the one that stops you from clicking to another channel if it pops up on TV. A little bit of pulp does help the message go down. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatySep 30, 2015
A pretty average siege thriller. I’m positive there’s an audience for an Old West tale about fierce, independent women. I’m equally positive it can be done better. Read full review
58
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 13, 2014
The Keeping Room attempts a blend of sexual curiosity, home invasion horror and elegiac drama, that doesn't quite work, but whose ambitions are nonetheless compelling. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianMarc MohanNov 6, 2015
Ultimately, The Keeping Room feels more like a clumsy melding of "Unforgiven" and "12 Years a Slave" than a unique take on violence, race, and gender. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghOct 15, 2015
Despite its sparseness and haunting photography, the film proves to be little more than a home-invasion thriller low on thrills. Read full review
50
Boston GlobePeter KeoughOct 2, 2015
Barber, who directed the neglected, unabashedly satisfying vigilante thriller “Harry Brown” knows how to get the blood pumping and stoke an audience’s craving for righteousness, vengeance, and vicarious sadism. What he lacks is the woman’s touch, if by that one means nuance, ambiguity, and empathy. Read full review
50
Washington PostAlan ZilbermanOct 1, 2015
The Keeping Room raises difficult moral questions, yet it wallows so relentlessly in gloom that it is a challenge to care about what happens to its characters. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenSep 24, 2015
Though the movie is not without thoughtful observations on gender roles and the effects of war, Hart's characters tend to speak in poetic truths that call attention to their authorial polish. The cast breathes what life it can into the proceedings, with Otaru particularly impressive. Read full review
50
The New York TimesNicolas RapoldSep 24, 2015
Mr. Barber can work up a fair sense of menace, but he seems to have directed most of the talented cast to speak their lines in a mannered fashion learned from other movies. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskySep 23, 2015
Like Barber’s London-set vigilante movie "Harry Brown," it’s another lurid exploitation film classed up with moody lighting and character monologues, with none of the authentic regional flavor or amateur energy that gave real grindhouse flicks their tang. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChuck BowenSep 18, 2015
Director Daniel Barber uses a bleak and unresolved portion of American history to justify indulging typical genre-film nihilism. Read full review
50
VarietyJoe LeydonSep 13, 2014
A potentially gripping story of empowerment through armed resistance is almost totally undermined by studied, self-conscious storytelling. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 13, 2014
What might have looked intriguing on paper appears to have been largely pared away in the artsy mannerisms and loaded silences of Brit director Daniel Barber’s self-consciously elliptical treatment. Read full review
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