Till Human Voices Wake Us
Paramount Classics | Release Date: February 21, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
39
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
16
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Like the best of poems, it doesn't lend itself to easy understanding. But, like the best of poems, it's extremely provocative, to both imagination and intellect. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Nevertheless, in mid-reverie, there's no denying the pleasure in falling under its little spell -- till human voices wake us, and we frown. Read full review
60
Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf
There's a somber tone to Petroni's work here--enhanced by Roger Lanser's shadowy cinematography and handicapped a bit by a schmaltzy Hollywood-type score--and there's also plenty of episodic life stuff. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Petroni's directorial debut is too bittersweet and atmospheric for its own good, wrapping a potentially strong story in too many layers of misty emotion. Read full review
50
VarietyDavid Stratton
This dank, gloomy essay into the supernatural tries hard to create an intriguing mood in which fate guides the lives of its wounded protagonists, but few will be interested in the outcome. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Stays emotionally mired because of a static screenplay that fails to express its issues dramatically. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeJanice Page
Despite being well acted and sweetly moving when it strips down to the tender poem at its heart, Till Human Voices Wake Us spends too much time playing to an otherworldly suspense that simply isn't there. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Quickly causes viewers to lose patience, then interest. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Pearce and Bonham Carter are remarkably photogenic, but the movie is fitful and mannered to a fault, full of watery allusions and stormy scares. Read full review
50
New York PostMegan Lehmann
The two young actors are very engaging, but the chemistry between Pearce and Bonham Carter is less than zero and there's altogether too much heavy-handed, watery symbolism for comfort. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
As a meditation on love and loss, the award-winning script is perhaps too blunt. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
The film strives to be poetic, but it exposes nothing especially moving or relevant. Rather, the engaging leads wander around like actors lost in an ill-fated exercise in subtext. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The movie's hokey mysticism and heaving melancholy is closer in spirit to a solemn Hallmark greeting card. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Petroni takes the poem at face value, turning diaphanous literary imagery opaque and literal. Read full review
40
The New York TimesStephen Holden
So busy building its symbolic frame that it forgets to develop its characters, or even to make them likable. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
I was seduced part of the time, thanks largely to Bonham Carter's sensuality, but the whole is unsatisfying, and it's tempting to see the imposed recutting as a major source of the problem. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
What if the filmmaker had found a way to reconcile his two storylines into a cohesive whole? Wouldn’t that have made a wonderfully affecting film? Why yes, it would have. Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Voices is visually impressive, and it sustains a mood of downbeat romanticism throughout, but because it lacks an essential core of humanity, it's never as haunting or resonant as it should be. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
There must still be a kind of moony young adolescent girl for which this film would be enormously appealing, if television has not already exterminated the domestic example of that species. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
Kept in check by his character's neuroses, Pearce holds our attention throughout, but it isn't until near the end that he manages to break free of his character's and his director's inhibitions. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
I'd recommend you actively or passively forget this one. Read full review
20
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
I can find nothing nice to note about this excruciatingly slow, overly tasteful piece of whimsy. Read full review
20
Film ThreatMichael Dequina
The love story that is supposed to drive the film fails to ignite a single spark--and, hence, the film fails to generate a single iota of interest from the viewer. Read full review
20
Village VoiceDennis Lim
Another mystery that gives up its secrets all too quickly, Till Human Voices Wake Us is named for a T.S. Eliot line -- and it proves a woefully evocative title for this snoozy supernatural pastoral. Read full review
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