The Love That Remains
Janus Films | Release Date: January 30, 2026 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The Film StageLuke HicksOct 29, 2025
The screenplay is overflowing with memorable meditations, blunt-but-heartfelt exchanges, and piercing affection for its people, all rooted in the natural world around them. Read full review
90
The New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonJan 29, 2026
The landscape in which this family makes its domestic life is wild and lovely, and Palmason signals the changing of the seasons by showing us all of its beauty: the snow and ice, the sunshine and greenery, beautiful skies, placid water. The weather can be both delightful and harsh, warm and chilly, and that’s mirrored in the characters. Read full review
88
The Travers TakePeter TraversJan 30, 2026
I kept smiling watching this fractured family drama. A bizarre reaction for an Icelandic movie about the end of a marriage. But it’s the high spirits that stay with you in Hlynur Pálmason's charmer about the intangibles of love. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comClint WorthingtonJan 30, 2026
The Love That Remains plays out with remarkable intuition and sensitivity about its troubled characters, ones who try to love and reckon with hard feelings when those endeavors don’t work out, and you have to sift through the rubble to find meaning. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubSimon AbramsJan 28, 2026
The resulting drama might have been exasperating for its surface passivity if Pálmason’s faith in his actors and other regular collaborators, as well as his knack for composition (he’s also the movie’s cinematographer), didn’t pay off so regularly and so viscerally. Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de SemlyenMar 13, 2026
The symbolism is lightly worn here in a gently observational film that’s underpinned with humanism and compassion. Read full review
80
Next Best PictureMax BorgOct 29, 2025
The subdued, naturalistic, and sometimes playful approach to the subject is a welcome departure from more conventional family dramas about separation. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeOct 29, 2025
Wise and lyrical and strange, The Love That Remains thrives on its profound understanding of each family’s individual oddness, and the incremental confusion with which growing children regard their parents, as their elders grow smaller and more flawed by the day. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalZachary BarnesOct 29, 2025
As the title suggests, this isn’t a film focused simply on the ruins of a relationship so much as one with an eye on what’s worth keeping. Read full review
75
The PlaylistIana MurrayOct 29, 2025
There’s a noble search for meaning in the grass, sea and mountains, but it couldn’t hurt to have characters vocalize their feelings even just once. There is a story here, though Pálmason only really alludes to it. Read full review
70
Screen DailyWendy IdeOct 29, 2025
There’s an undertow of melancholy certainly, but also a light, buoyant quality to a film that cherishes its moments of humour and absurdity. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyOct 29, 2025
There’s much to admire in Pálmason’s unconventional approach to what could have been familiar domestic drama. But the dreamlike detours threaten to overwhelm the tender portrait of a family breakup. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid KatzOct 29, 2025
Pálmason’s overall sincerity has its dividends, even for what it lacks in candidness: the poignant closing shot distills that this is his vision on this eternal topic, open to the risk that its alternating visual modes won’t harmonize. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineKenji FujishimaOct 1, 2025
Hlynur Pálmason, who has a background in visual art, explores the film’s family dynamics through a vignette-like structure that sometimes feels akin to walking through an art exhibition. Read full review
60
The TimesKevin MaherMar 18, 2026
It’s more funny peculiar than funny ha ha and, alas, doesn’t always work. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 29, 2025
The effect is tender, sympathetic, diverting and often very elegant and indirect. But it withholds from us the full, real pain of damaged love. Read full review
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