The Well Digger's Daughter
Kino Lorber Films | Release Date: July 20, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertOct 3, 2012
The Well Digger's Daughter is such a success that Auteuil has already been signed to direct three more Pagnol classics, and I eagerly want to see them. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJul 20, 2012
It's a movie that could easily have been made 50 years ago, and I don't mean that as a knock. There is much to be said for a film that values unflashy craft and simple, unhurried storytelling. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJul 27, 2012
Best of all "Daughter" marks a return to old-school French moviemaking, the kind of classically well-made endeavor that unrolls before us like a beloved tapestry. This is the kind of film they don't make anymore, only here it is. Read full review
80
NPRElla TaylorJul 20, 2012
The Well-Digger's Daughter offers a fervent poem to the region's abundant beauty. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerJul 16, 2012
A polished, finely acted tale of love and class in the south of France. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonAug 17, 2012
The Well-Digger's Daughter is perhaps a bit too sentimental. But the performances are so heartfelt that its occasional excesses are easily forgiven. In a movie summer too often obsessed with things that go boom, this film is all about romance. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyAug 2, 2012
For lovers of classical French cinema, and I am one, this earthy throwback is a whiff of lavender borne by the bracing winds of the mistral. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 26, 2012
The Well Digger's Daughter is old-fashioned in the best sense, almost cozy in its conventions. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanJul 18, 2012
The Well-Digger's Daughter pushes a number of nostalgia buttons at once, most of them pleasing. Read full review
70
TimeRichard CorlissJul 23, 2012
The full-bodied performances of Merad and Darroussin give everyone - everyone with an indulgence for old movies about old values - a reason to see this Well Digger's Daughter. Read full review
70
VarietyBoyd van HoeijJul 16, 2012
The humanist spirit of Gallic novelist-director Marcel Pagnol is alive and well in the old-fashionedly sincere The Well-Digger's Daughter, a competent remake of Pagnol's eponymous 1940 melodrama about a working-class girl impregnated by a young pilot who's sent off to war. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyJul 26, 2012
Say this for Auteuil: He has a sense of movie history. The closing credits include the equivalent of an Easter egg for lovers of film and especially for lovers of French film. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithJul 20, 2012
Like Provence itself, Auteuil is in no hurry to get anywhere, reveling instead in the southern region's brilliant light and whispering crickets. His tangy accent and evident fondness for his character make the picture enjoyable enough as it plods along, and the final act wraps things up on a fulfilling note. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineBill WeberJul 16, 2012
Ultimately comes off as curiously anecdotal, lacking the dramatic dynamism that could give Marcel Pagnol's tale new life. Read full review
60
Village VoiceMichael NordineJul 17, 2012
Stirrings of dignified outrage via the eponymous well-digger eventually go a long way toward energizing the film, which improves markedly once it shifts its focus from the World War I–era milieu toward how quickly a naive young girl can turn into a fallen woman and the ways in which that fallout affects her father, her family, and apparently most importantly, her name. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla DargisJul 19, 2012
There are times in The Well-Digger's Daughter, a once-upon-a-time French film about love, family and the seductive beauty of the Provençal countryside, when the story's sweetness nearly makes your teeth ache. Read full review
40
Time OutEric HynesJul 17, 2012
Bergès-Frisbey and Duvauchelle make for a deliciously ripe pair - their cheekbones defy both gravity and sound facial architecture - but Auteuil is less interested in young lust than old world values. Read full review
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