The Roads Not Taken
Bleecker Street Media | Release Date: March 13, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
13
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
EmpirePamela HutchinsonSep 8, 2020
Elle Fanning and Sally Potter triumph again. It’s not always an easy watch, but The Roads Not Taken tackles a distressing subject with care and invites us to reconsider our preconceptions. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMar 17, 2020
For many, the story will pose an insurmountable challenge to even enjoy. But enjoyment it seems, is not Potter’s point. Yes, it is an unvarnished portrait of a mind breaking into fragments. Yet it is more than that, too. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 13, 2020
Sally Potter’s The Roads Not Taken is a sad, painful, self-conscious vignette of a film with forthright performances; it’s a chamber piece in many ways, but with bold flashback excursions that come close to causing its emotional engine to overheat. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Simran HansSep 13, 2020
The Roads Not Taken is frequently moving, and a fascinating creative idea, but without sufficient information about Leo’s character to anchor the narrative, it feels too abstract. Read full review
60
The New York TimesGlenn KennyMar 12, 2020
Potter delivers her vision here in a form that’s perhaps too raw, too undistilled. There’s precious little lightness negotiating with the dark. Her lack of compromise is, as always, admirable — as is her way with actors. Read full review
60
TheWrapCandice FrederickMar 12, 2020
Fanning and Bardem deliver two utterly devastating performances that show the power of despair met with unyielding love. Read full review
59
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpMar 26, 2020
The Roads Not Taken works when Bardem and Fanning are on screen together, where Potter’s experiences caring for her sibling rise to the writing’s surface and give the narrative a punch of honesty. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedMar 16, 2020
After an hour of this tedium, you stop worrying about where this disaster is going — or if it’s going anywhere at all. In the end credits, 28 producers are listed for an 85-minute film that doesn’t appear to have even had one. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comTomris LafflyMar 13, 2020
Fanning delivers a performance of such astonishing depth and emotional range that her presence here is both a relief and strangely frustrating, since the film that surrounds the young actor is sadly no match for the qualities she brings to Potter’s profoundly personal narrative. Read full review
50
Screen DailyLee MarshallFeb 28, 2020
Two bravura performances can’t disguise the thinness of a script that exposes just how uninteresting this ‘sliding doors’ game can be. The Roads Not Taken redeems itself, partly, through the compassion and sensitivity with which it deals with the mind-ravaging illness at its core. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungFeb 28, 2020
Leads Javier Bardem and Elle Fanning are commanding actors who give it all they’ve got to make their characters realistic, but while the film can be intriguing, it is never truly moving. Read full review
50
IndieWireDavid EhrlichFeb 28, 2020
As dour in practice as it is bright-eyed in principle, Potter’s film makes an earnest but enervating attempt to erase mental boundaries. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeMar 12, 2020
The movie is an exasperating puzzle with most of the pieces missing. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinMar 12, 2020
Despite the noble ambitions of writer-director Sally Potter (“Orlando, “The Party”), The Roads Not Taken proves a morose and baffling drama; a painful, snail’s-paced 85 minutes with little payoff. Read full review
40
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 10, 2020
There’s no doubting Potter’s laudable ambition to capture the swirling headspace of her brother, who died in 2013. But in trying to restore his dignity in fighting the dying of the light, she’s neglected to portray him in the human terms that would let us share his spirit. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMay 20, 2020
An exercise in miserablism that, although clocking in at an ostensibly tight pace, feels never-ending. Read full review
33
The PlaylistJack KingFeb 28, 2020
The Roads Not Taken is perfectly satisfactory in terms of style, but the film leaves much to be desired when it comes to content. Read full review
20
The TelegraphTim RobeyMar 12, 2020
The film is close to parody – not of anything Potter’s ever done, but of male artists and their obsessive end-of-life regrets. If you’d told me it was a shelved adaptation of late Philip Roth done by Alejandro González Iñárritu in Birdman (or Biutiful) mode, I’d have believed it in a shot. Read full review
0
Slant MagazineDiego SemereneFeb 29, 2020
The film is an unending source for the worst possible clichés and most overdone series of graphic matches in the history of film editing. Read full review
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