Impardonnables 2011

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: "Unforgivable" isn't one of Mr. Techine's greatest achievements, but it's engrossing even when its increasingly populated story falters, tripped up by unpersuasive actions, connections and details. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: Bouquet and the waterways of Venice are the chief charms of Techine's movie, which is otherwise one of his less convincing efforts. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: The jumble of characters and plotlines remain indistinct and removed throughout. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: An elegantly rambling Franco-Italian affair about the ways we do each other wrong while trying to do each other right. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: It's clearly the work of a master storyteller, conveying a rich, novelistic sense of character and a poetic feeling for the passing of time. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Every single player in Unforgivable is worth a movie of his or her own. The fact that they are all in the same movie together is more boon than bust. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: [An] elliptical and somewhat loopy drama about the slipperiness of love at any age... Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Literate, intelligent and a model of accomplished European filmmaking, "Unforgivable" showcases the kind of emotional complexity that is all but gone from the screen these days. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Techine lavishes upon us not just scenery and characters but complications and emotional turmoil in pursuit of subtlety. If this seems perverse, it most certainly is. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: The movie is intriguing and racy, but not always convincing. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: There's something in this story that lingers, too, like the Venetian sunset, as we watch these people, rich and poor, acting foolishly, selfishly, sometimes even hurtfully. Read more

Joel Arnold, NPR: Without fully realized characters, the film's major moments - each cutting remark and humiliating act - feel hollow. Read more

Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post: Both Venice and Bouquet are photographed to ravishing effect, and like the city, Judith is meant to suggest something trapped into being a fantasy for others. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: An exquisitely crafted, brilliant, confusing, disordered, maddening, and wonderfully flawed film that tries to show life as it is lived. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: What makes the film involving is that it doesn't depend on the mechanical resolution of the plot, but on the close observation of its effects on these distinctive characters. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It creates the lived-in sense of being in the world of the characters. Read more

Jon Frosch, The Atlantic: A fascinating, satisfyingly complex romantic thriller. Read more

Stephen Garrett, Time Out: All are wounded souls, and all try their best, even if their acts are less than virtuous. Read more

Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic: [Unforgivable] sets out as an account of unusual lives, finishes as a portrait of a society -- one that lives between the conventional and the openly low. Read more

Eric Hynes, Village Voice: Techine piles a staggering amount of incident into 111 minutes, ever pushing the narrative forward and never letting scenes dawdle. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: The way Techine holds them up to the film's unforgiving light, they sometimes seem less like people than like insects in a jar. Read more