La fille du puisatier 2011

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: You feel yourself slowing down and relaxing as you watch; there's nothing rushed or crowded about this film, just a quiet story carefully told. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: A pastoral wrapped in gauze, sunlight and sentimentality. Read more

Mark Feeney, Boston Globe: Auteuil the director knows not to get in the way of Pagnol's plot machinery. Auteuil the actor is another story. Read more

Drew Hunt, Chicago Reader: Auteuil's direction is a lot like his acting -- well-mannered and likable, yet staid and ultimately inconsequential. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: 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 more

Tom Long, Detroit News: "The Well-Digger's Daughter" isn't a mind-blower; it's not supposed to be. It's a light lunch with an old friend whom it's good to see again. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The Well-Digger's Daughter pushes a number of nostalgia buttons at once, most of them pleasing. Read more

Jordan Mintzer, Hollywood Reporter: Daniel Auteuil offers a crowd-pleasing remake of a Marcel Pagnol classic. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Let "The Well-Digger's Daughter" take you back in time, not once but several times over. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: What resonates is a sense of humanity that sometimes gets lost in films with less regard for traditional storytelling, or respect for simple emotion. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: Auteuil is hardly the first to sing the praises of Provence, but he sings with a passion eloquent enough to give nostalgia a good name. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: [It's] enjoyable enough as it plods along, and the final act wraps things up on a fulfilling note. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: To call "The Well Digger's Daughter" an old-fashioned film is to pay it a compliment. Here is a love story embedded in traditional values. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It's the first film directed by the actor Daniel Auteuil, as part of a four-film project to remake films by the writer-director Marcel Pagnol, and if the others are this good, this is a project to look forward to. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It's classical moviemaking of a sort rarely seen now, a love story of surprising joy with rounded, flawed but humane characters. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "The Well-Digger's Daughter" is perhaps a bit too sentimental. But the performances are so heartfelt that its occasional excesses are easily forgiven. Read more

Jon Frosch, The Atlantic: Even as you wish the material had been reshaped into something riskier, you may find yourself appreciating the sincerity and unshowy workmanship that went into the movie. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: An unchallenging but utterly palatable movie to take your subtitle-reading grandma to see on a Sunday afternoon. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: Here's a broad appeal to be gleaned from its antiquated charm, modest focus and a clutch of ripe, old-school character turns, especially from Auteuil in the lead and French stalwarts Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Sabine Azema. Read more

Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic: Astrid Berges-Frisbey as Patricia and Jean-Pierre Darroussin are almost enchanting, but it is Auteuil, entering a new career as mature actor-director, whom we want to cheer. Read more

Boyd van Hoeij, Variety: The humanist spirit of Gallic novelist-director Marcel Pagnol is alive and well in the old-fashionedly sincere The Well-Digger's Daughter. Read more

Michael Nordine, Village Voice: Doesn't give us reason to assume that what we don't see is much more scandalous than what we do. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: "The Well-Digger's Daughter" feels decidedly, almost defiantly, old-fashioned, but not necessarily in a bad way. Read more