The Lady
Cohen Media Group | Release Date: April 13, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
13
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 13, 2012
The Lady is a portrait in moral and physical courage, a sort of analysis of what constitutes greatness. Read full review
65
NPRElla TaylorApr 16, 2012
The accomplished actress Michelle Yeoh, who brought the project to Besson, is a regal beauty who brings off an uncanny resemblance to Suu Kyi largely through posture and the trademark flowers the activist wore in her hair. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertApr 18, 2012
The Lady is more professional but, for me, "They Call It Myanmar" is more useful. Lieberman answers questions that Besson does not think to ask. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithApr 13, 2012
An appropriately respectful and dignified biopic. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineMichael NordineFeb 14, 2012
The goings-on can rarely be called truly compelling, even if they're almost always generally pleasant. Read full review
60
TimeRichard CorlissApr 12, 2012
The Lady is still titled away from the churning melodrama of Suu Kyi's country and toward the intimate dilemma of a loving couple forced apart by circumstance. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrApr 12, 2012
It can't be easy to turn one of the most stirring human rights dramas of the past quarter century into stultifying screen pageantry, but director Luc Besson and writer Rebecca Frayn have managed the trick with The Lady. Read full review
50
MovielineMichelle OrangeDec 1, 2011
There's something immobile at the center of The Lady, a kind of Botoxed biopic with an unlikely director - Luc Besson - manning the syringe. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyNov 27, 2011
Besson responded to something in the story that prompted him to step outside his comfort zone, but exactly what that was is unclear in this well-intentioned but pedestrian retelling of a stirring true story. Read full review
50
VarietyJustin ChangNov 27, 2011
This handsomely mounted picture is, at nearly 2 1/2 hours, far too long and indigestible for a film whose protagonist spends most of her screen time under house arrest. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayApr 11, 2012
This is an inspiring and important story, but worthiness doesn't automatically equal quality. Had Besson looked for unexpected ways into Suu Kyi's life, or even had he indulged his old impulses and made a slick, surface-y Luc Besson movie, then The Lady might've been more memorable. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 12, 2012
This time, though, the happy ending plays out in real life, while the screen version falls afoul of a laggardly pace, an earnest tone and a surfeit of domesticity. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanApr 12, 2012
Any story about Suu Kyi's extraordinary life is worth seeing, simply to learn more about her. Even so, such a rare individual deserves a film that treats her not as a saint, but the remarkable, complex human being she actually is. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 10, 2012
Paralyzes history and human drama with relentless hagiography. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonApr 10, 2012
Impersonally directed by cinéma du look pioneer Luc Besson, The Lady was written by first-timer Rebecca Frayn, whose script has all the elegance and nuance of Google Translate. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichApr 10, 2012
Who would have thought that the man behind such wackadoo fantasies as "The Professional" and "The Fifth Element" was capable of being so bloody boring? Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 9, 2012
One of those agonisingly well-intentioned films whose heart is in the right place, but everything else is wrong. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyDec 1, 2011
We have a fumbling and fawning - if sincere - tribute to the living legend and a director who has never seemed more out of his element. Read full review
38
Washington PostAdam BernsteinApr 19, 2012
In the final scene, the filmmakers nearly succeed in turning Suu Kyi into an Asian Eva Peron, down to the outspread arms, tossing an orchid to her worshippers. Read full review
30
Boxoffice MagazineVadim RizovApr 15, 2012
Stolidly maudlin, this enervating sub-middlebrow pic is doomed to well-deserved commercial obscurity. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyApr 26, 2012
Contrast this to "The Iron Lady," a film which managed to be both obnoxiously condescending and flattering to the divisive British leader Margaret Thatcher, and left those of all political stripes irritated. The Lady, devoid of either iron or irony, is merely forgettable, a much deeper insult to its subject. Read full review
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