We Don't Live Here Anymore
Warner Independent Pictures (WIP) | Release Date: August 13, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
14
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The film is at times harrowing to watch, yet it's also wry and delicate and absorbing. It's infused with the messy excitement of imperfect passion. Read full review
90
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Naomi Watts is a tremendous movie actress. She need only sidle on camera and glance over the terrain to claim the scene. What's her secret? Like the great Isabelle Huppert, Watts doesn't radiate feelings so much as she absorbs them. Read full review
90
L.A. WeeklyF. X. Feeney
It is worthy of comparison to the lifelike, character-rich films we cherish from that era (1970s), and is certainly one of the finest films to come out this year. Read full review
90
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Easily the best American movie so far this year. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
A revelation. One rarely sees American-made movies that are so unafraid to explore emotional cruelty and portray the consequences without positing easy answers or attaching happy endings. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDuane Byrge
Director John Curran has masterfully managed to convey flesh and blood within the permutations of the sometimes clinical story. Enhancing the people-next-door nature of this saga were the film's smart technical contributions. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
A sense of unease, of incompleteness, is, I think, the appropriate response to this movie. Instead of trying to fill in the blanks, Curran and Gross leave things open and ambiguous. Just like life. Read full review
80
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Compassionate though it is, this is not a movie that offers much in the way of solace. It insists that there is no end to human weakness, and not much cure for it either. That's pretty strong stuff. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJim Fusilli
Set ablaze by a startling performance by Laura Dern, it's a stark, often disturbing look at the ramifications of betrayal.
80
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
The movie may leave its audience feeling a little battered (some might say betrayed) as well. Still, the film's honesty, along with its refusal to pander to Hollywood happy endings, is well worth the beating. Read full review
80
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
The film was directed by John Curran who here does fine, close, and intimate "chamber" work. The cinematography by Maryse Alberti is of the most desirable kind: it creates mood and drama without ever being ostentatious about it. But it is the acting that truly realizes the film. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The film, sometimes talky and overemphatic, is also literate, erotic, brutally funny and touched by brilliance in its quartet of live-wire performances. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Not a deep movie. It is a very honest one, though - there's not a cheap cinematic trick in sight - and it's a graceful one, energizing its small-town story with eloquent camera work and ingenious musical touches. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Usually American marital problems are left to the soap operas; it's nice to see them tackled by experts, piercing personas and peeling open hearts. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
All four performances are strong and nuanced, which makes the film oddly compelling. At the same time, all four characters are hard to like, difficult to care about. They're like car-crash victims in a demolition derby of narcissism and lies. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A movie for adults, of a kind that usually isn't made in America, Read full review
75
Portland OregonianKaren Karbo
An absorbing relational Rorschach test masquerading as a domestic drama, a sardonic examination of marriage and friendship that invites the audience to think for itself. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Tony literary material, a fine cast and intelligent script and direction. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
In Curran's hands, what might have seemed like a "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?" redux gets cut into avant-garde pieces, with experimental inserts, sound effects, and wrinkles in time that add to an uneasy mood. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
Affecting and sincere in the best sense, which makes up for the whiff of anachronism and the creakiness of some of the big metaphoric moments. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
This is not a movie to see if you're contemplating tying the knot; it's a hard slog for those of us already entwined. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
A pretty spot-on distillation of human weakness, but my god, must they all be so inhumane in the process? Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
At heart a rather chilly and clinical portrait of four very selfish people. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Though the violence in this film never becomes physical, the psychic wounds these people inflict on one another cut so deeply you wish it would. It's a grueling experience. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Well-acted drama. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
With We Don't Live Here Anymore, it's the audience that may want to leave and start a new life. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
What it lacks is the wit or even the cynicism to lighten the emotional load. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The actors are better than the material. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
You get the sense that the cheap thrill of cheating is like putting a Band-Aid on a broken bone. The movie feels just as inadequate emotionally and psychologically. There's a lot of outward behavior but no inner life. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
What you're smelling is Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm" without the pathos and the punch, or John Updike's "Rabbit Redux" minus the insight and the style. Read full review
50
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Like the bad fight that ends the bad marriage: ugly, messy, loud, sometimes incoherent, but ultimately necessary. You're glad when either of them -- the marriage or the movie -- is over. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
There's no character to root for in this movie, no potential triumphs or resounding failures, just the sense of people going through the motions because they can't bother to think of anything better to do. And that's not a lot to hang your moviegoing hat on. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The rest of us can pass this by, unless we're such fans of the actors - Mark Ruffalo, Naomi Watts, Laura Dern and Peter Krause - that we'd watch them in anything. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
It is almost completely devoid of any trace of humor. It radiates a luxurious, all-encompassing mopeyness. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
May be very much about feelings, but it's made with a drab, juiceless, tasteful efficiency that distances us from the characters instead of drawing us closer to them. Read full review
40
Dallas ObserverMelissa Levine
An hour of dour stagnation is a lot to take, even with good acting. So when the action finally does shift, toward the end of the film, it is a welcome relief. Read full review
40
EmpireAnna Smith
If you're looking for a film to put you off marriage, children, affairs, and indeed life itself, look no further than this melancholic ensemble piece about listless adulterous couples in small-town New England. Read full review
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