The Magdalene Sisters
Miramax Films | Release Date: August 1, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
38
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
A pungent, powerful film that points an accusing finger not at religious beliefs but at flawed human institutions. It also targets social and cultural mores that are almost medieval in their patriarchal bias against girls and women. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Blistering and brilliant work. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A fierce, brilliant film that breaks (and then mends) your heart. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The rare movie that turns cruelty into art. Read full review
100
Film ThreatK.J. Doughton
Although this ain't Hogwarts, there's full-scale witchery being practiced behind Magdalene's locked doors. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
A picture so powerfully harrowing, its slight shortcomings are forgettable compared to the entire film's cumulative effect. It's that searing. Read full review
90
SlateDavid Edelstein
Both a masterpiece and a holy hell: Watching it, you feel you're being punished for a crime you didn't commit. Which puts you, come to think of it, in the same frame of mind as those poor Magdalene girls. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
See The Magdalene Sisters for its own sake; the performances alone are inspirational. But see it too as an example of how powerful a feature film still can be in the hands of an impassioned filmmaker.
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Graced with performers who bring a purity of emotion to their work, the film is always dramatically convincing. There is a fundamental air of truth about it, a sense that, horrific though things seem, this is how it must have been. Read full review
90
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
A stirring, emotionally galvanizing film, not only due to its shattering subject matter but thanks to Mullan's spot-on eye for casting and fluid, uncoercive style. Read full review
90
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Mullan's movie is admiringly uncompromising. He refuses to augment the horrors with relief. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
While it’s perhaps not the best date film of the year, it is a grim and unmistakable masterpiece of bleak, black sorrow. Read full review
88
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The picture has immediacy, force and humanity. It's a muckraking work of art. Read full review
88
New York PostV.A. Musetto
The cast is amazing -- two of the lead actresses are first-timers. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A harrowing look at institutional cruelty, perpetrated by the Catholic Church in Ireland, and justified by a perverted hysteria about sex. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The whole system was sadistic and indefensible, and the church, looking the other way as long as profits rolled in from the laundries, deserves the scorn that Mullan and his fine cast heap on it. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
It is an unsettling tale told simply and chillingly by director Peter Mullan, with stand-out performances, an evocative soundtrack and spare, haunting visuals. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
It is passionate and angry and rousing where you might expect it to become numbing and depressing. Read full review
80
VarietyDavid Rooney
Mullan's increased maturity as a director is evident in his skill at manipulating light and dark dramatic tones, and shifting between moods of anger and plaintive melancholy. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Grim, grueling and triumphantly powerful. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen Holden
The Magdalene Sisters would be too painful to watch if it didn't have a silver lining. Suffice it to say that it is possible to fly over this religious cuckoo's nest and remain free. All it takes is courage and the timely kindness of strangers. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
When it comes time for some of the girls to flee, the result is one of the most emotionally satisfying of all prison breaks. Read full review
80
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Why was this film made after the homes had already been abolished? One reason, hardly trifling, is that it was made excellently. Thematically, however, it stings -- as a reminder that Catholicism is only one religion that is dominated by males and that this domination is proprietary. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Its brutal take on living under totalitarian rule periodically suggests Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four." Mullan makes the authority figures (such as the nun played by Geraldine McEwan) grimly believable, but as in "Orphans," there are times when he doesn't know when to quit. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
A rip-roaring feminist yarn that should offer relief to viewers anxious for an alternative to the boys-with-guns flicks of summer. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Mullan errs by making all the sisters dragon ladies. Still, the film gets to you; it's a powerhouse. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A powerful document of cruelty and sadism. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
A disturbing and compelling motion picture that depicts the forces that try to suppress the human spirit, and the strength of these girls in overcoming it. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
The film is an attack on religious hypocrisy, mixing melodrama and black humour in a volatile blend. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
A film of haunting eloquence and justifiable fury. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
If The Magdalene Sisters occasionally flirts with cartoonishness, the movie is tempered by Mullan's considerable filmmaking skills. Read full review
75
PremiereGlenn Kenny
The film is beautifully acted by all, but Nora-Jane Noone, as the sloe-eyed orphan Bernadette, is first among equals here, and a genuine find. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
This shocker is often shameless, not least in the climactic confrontation with Sister Bridget, but it's impossible not to be moved by the ending -- if only because the torture is finally over. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
Nobody does shrewishness better than McEwan. [8 August 2003, p. 84]
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Generations of healthy spirits were twisted and deformed by the good Sisters of Mercy, all in the name of salvation. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
The film might have been more powerful, not to mention fair, if the nuns believed they were doing right; only on movie night, when McEwan sees herself in Ingrid Bergman in "The Bells Of St. Mary's," does Mullan grant her so much as the delusion of rectitude. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverBill Gallo
The horrors therein are vivid, even if the movie is a bit plodding. Read full review
70
Film ThreatMark Sells
Though it has a tendency to leave characters undeveloped and storylines empty, the overall portrait is significant. Read full review
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