The Third Wife
Film Movement | Release Date: May 15, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
VarietyJessica KiangMay 13, 2019
This is the rare debut that derives its freshness not from inexperience but from a balance between compassion and restraint that most filmmakers take decades to achieve. Read full review
83
The PlaylistAndrew BundyMay 16, 2019
Ash Mayfair’s debut film is an astonishing achievement for a first feature, one not every film-goer will be able to stomach, but a work every caring cinephile should see. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubBeatrice LoayzaMay 13, 2019
An unabashedly reticent arthouse film, The Third Wife takes its time drifting through May’s coming of age, which will try the patience of some audiences. But those open to the seduction of Mayfair’s understated drama and its beautiful natural imagery will be handsomely rewarded. Read full review
83
The Film StageJared MobarakMay 13, 2019
It’s a mesmerizing look behind a curtain torn away so Mayfair can reveal an authenticity too often masked by historical precedent and conservative acquiescence. Love is created in rebellion, but ultimately stifled by the need for survival. Read full review
80
Screen DailyJohn BerraMay 13, 2019
If this focus on fleeting pleasures occasionally risks exoticizing the subject, Mayfair’s sensory approach to illustrating an almost unbearable absence of female fulfillment achieves a powerful universal resonance. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 9, 2020
The Third Wife lacks the Technicolor saturated hues of the great Zhang Yimou Chinese period pieces it imitates — “Ju Dou,” Red Sorghum” and “To Live” among them. It lacks the emotional, dramatic punch of those stories as well. Read full review
75
Washington PostHau ChuJun 24, 2019
Some viewers may want delicacy in a period film about women navigating a world in which they’ve been pitted against one another. But maybe, Mayfair suggests, we need the blunt reminder: The issues that women were confronting in the Vietnam of the 1800s — a world in which they’re considered property more than people — aren’t all that different from today. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonMay 29, 2019
What we have here is a small, delicate mini-masterpiece, and bright new talent behind the camera. Read full review
75
Film ThreatAlan NgMay 13, 2019
Mayfair’s The Third Wife is a powerful reminder that the oppression of women is not strictly a Western problem and everyone—women or men—want to be free to choose their own path in life. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleMay 23, 2019
There is much that is finely wrought here as a tactile slice of women’s history told in careful observances, hidden textures and the sights and sounds of nature unbound. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 5, 2019
It’s a strong story with devastating implications, but also one told at an artistic remove that renders its meanings less subtle than diminished. There’s a fury underlying this film that goes unexpressed to the point of almost going unacknowledged, and it saps The Third Wife of a strength and momentum it could use. If Ash Mayfair ever taps into that fury, she may become a filmmaker to reckon with. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 15, 2019
It’s too cool for melodrama and too pretty for politics, and the drama of May’s experience occupies a middle ground between pity and indignation. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterNeil YoungMay 13, 2019
Mayfair's picture feels like the work of a seasoned veteran rather than a newcomer, but this isn't necessarily a compliment. It's sensitively poetic and tremulously delicate to a fault, with every beat seemingly accompanied and underlined by an intrusive score from Ton That An which is heavily freighted with plangent strings and mournful piano notes. Read full review
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