Les égarés 2003

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: We have little idea where it will turn, and the turn it does take is one we would not expect yet somehow seems totally right. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: War may set the stage for Strayed, but the film's real focus is something much quieter and internal. Read more

Allison Benedikt, Chicago Tribune: All this unfolds against the backdrop of war, but it's Techine's characters who create the tension, not the prospect of bombs or invading soldiers. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: A beautifully balanced portrait of a family that is tested and irrevocably altered by a devastating World War II experience. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: With searing images of distressed families of American soldiers killed in Iraq on TV almost daily, Strayed is another poignant reminder of war's innocent victims. Read more

Melinda Ennis, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Ulliel is brilliant as a lost boy who has grown mad in a world filled with madness. And Beart's portrayal is haunting. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Strayed has a facile take on the war and its fallout, but rarely is it simpleminded about emotional hang-ups. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: Beart is remarkable in her underplayed portrayal of a poised bourgeoise who is called on to discover inner strength that in normal times might have never needed to be tapped. Read more

Houston Chronicle: Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Beautifully ambiguous, exquisitely underplayed. Read more

Jane Sumner, Dallas Morning News: A fascinating mystery -- a halcyon idyll with a gnawing sense of terror at the edge. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: All you can do is watch the slight story sputter, and try to figure out whether Beart's formidable lips were made by God or man. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: A touch of ambiguity never hurts, but too few dots connect in this story, and we're left with a portrait that only can be admired from a distance. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Fails because the relationship between Odile and Yvan never makes us feel the sexual passion it implies. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: Andre Techine's taut, swift wartime drama portrays the panicked mass exodus from Paris in 1940 on the eve of the German occupation. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Odile and Yvan change and grow as we watch them -- and without any whimpering or whining, they break our hearts. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Begins and ends with facts of war, but it is really a film about the nature of male and female, about middle-class values and those who cannot afford them, about how helpless we can be when the net of society is broken. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Time Out: Read more

David Stratton, Variety: Techine creates a considerable degree of suspense with minimal ingredients here, and he has been judicious in his casting choices. Read more

Dennis Lim, Village Voice: As with Techine's best work, Strayed is a peculiar, lingering blend of robustness and delicacy -- a movie with hardly a single wasted frame, incongruous word, or false gesture. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: A picture-book French film that's pretty and trite, rather than edgy and moving. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: Has the strange clarity of a fable. Read more