The Loneliest Planet
IFC Films | Release Date: October 26, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasOct 24, 2012
The film feels as beautifully calibrated as a great piece of short fiction, only with visual accents and emphases filling in for the prose. It's a relationship movie where the most important exchanges remain unspoken. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumOct 24, 2012
One of the year's most original and emotionally profound movies masquerades as the tiny story of a young couple who take a backpacking trip in the Caucasus Mountains the summer before their wedding. Read full review
95
MovielineAlison WillmoreOct 24, 2012
One of the finest of the year, The Loneliest Planet is based on a short story by Tom Bissell that's itself inspired by a famous Hemingway work, "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnOct 27, 2012
Suspense is rarely delivered with such distinctive patience. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisNov 1, 2012
The movie captures a kind of tragedy of self. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerOct 26, 2012
The Loneliest Planet is not a perfect work of art, but it gets at something powerful: the way that life can turn us around in a flash, without warning. Read full review
83
The PlaylistErik McClanahanOct 25, 2012
Bernal continues to put in one good performance after another, and his turn here is no exception. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyOct 25, 2012
Bernal and Furstenberg exist within this meditative space with all the ease and unease of a couple still trying each other on for size. The forces that push and pull them feel so rooted in reality that if not for the layers of meaning it might seem a complete improvisation. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 25, 2012
Blink your eyes and you've lost track of them, but one of the interesting things about the experience is that you don't want to lose track; though the film moves as slowly as its hikers, it demands, and deserves, to be watched closely. (The cinematographer was Inti Briones.) Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfOct 23, 2012
Adjust to the deliberate rhythms of this hiking movie-set on the lush slopes of Georgia's Caucasus Mountains - and the psychological payoff stings like a blister. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc MohanNov 15, 2012
The languid, observational style of director Julia Loktev will frustrate those expecting stuff to, like, happen more, but it has its real rewards. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 25, 2012
It is gripping and haunting, but also coy and elusive. Read full review
70
NPRMark JenkinsOct 25, 2012
The story is carefully constructed, with moments that seem offhand initially, but are later revealed as crucial. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAaron HillisOct 13, 2012
Julia Loktev's marvelous, slow-burning follow-up to her minimalist thriller "Day Night Day Night" somehow manages to be both audacious and subtle. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineAndrew SchenkerOct 13, 2012
Much of the film's final act is given to alienated walking, which too often plays as an abstract study of triangular arrangements in which non-speaking figures move across a barren terrain. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierOct 25, 2012
Writer-director Julia Loktev sustains the tension for long, Antonioni-esque passages that portend something momentous. The film delivers in unexpected ways, and then ponders what it means. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoNov 2, 2012
There's no getting around it. Though it's not without virtues, The Loneliest Planet may try the patience of even the most dedicated lovers of art film. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertOct 31, 2012
All of this grows tiresome. We're given no particular reason at the outset of The Loneliest Planet to care about these people, our interest doesn't grow along the way, the landscape grows repetitive, the director's approach is aggressively minimalist, and if you ask me, this romance was not made in heaven. Read full review
50
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeOct 25, 2012
Gorgeous surroundings don't make up for sulky, feuding travel companions. Read full review
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