L'heure d'été 2008

Ben Lyons, At the Movies: This is a well constructed, tender, authentic story. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The texture and flow of Summer Hours, the supple quality of the acting, the fluid camerawork isolating this or that observer while life flows on and domestic crises ebb and flow -- it all comes together as formidably detailed and easy-breathing cra Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Hats off to Olivier Assayas's plain yet hauntingly beautiful Summer Hours, a true -- albeit nonsecular -- meditation on art and eternal life. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: One realizes the real dramatic conflict is between the past, which must be honored, and the present, which must be lived. Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: N Summer Hours, Olivier Assayas's gently provocative rumination on family and possessions, a trio of siblings wrestles with the problem of what to do with the old homestead once Mother is gone. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Summer Hours drags in the middle, but its final scene is almost overpoweringly tender and beautiful, offering a hopeful rejoinder to all the prior scenes of family members shedding their shared legacy. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: As dramatically uneventful as these passages are, there's a kind of beautiful truth in them. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: This is a movie that, for all its once-over-lightliness, stays with one. Given what it's about, and the intelligence of its makers, how could it not? Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Summer Hours begins with an energetic treasure hunt. It ends reminding us how our lives are spent learning and unlearning what is to be treasured. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: A sweet pearl of a French film, Summer Hours may work as a perfect antidote for those seeking refuge from the summer blockbuster season. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Summer Hours, director Olivier Assayas' tender, sun-kissed, Chekhovian drama, brims with life and loveliness even as it meditates on the loss of childhood. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: It's all very civil and inexorable--unlike a stateside version; we know there will be no last-minute car wash or concert fundraiser to save the estate. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Berling, Binoche and Renier all play off each other effortlessly, and Summer Hours makes you feel comfortable spending time with their family, too. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: In the end, Assayas, shooting the film with relaxed, flowing camera movements, gives his love not to beautiful objects but to the disorderly life out of which art is made. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: This exquisitely subtle family drama finds writer-director Olivier Assayas in a deeply contemplative mood. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Even for a French drama, Summer Hours is so slow as to be practically still. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Quietly and keenly observed. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Anyone who discovers more to this movie than 'much talk and little action' will develop a rapport with the characters. They are reflections of us, and therein lies their ability to compel attention. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The actors all find the correct notes. It is a French film, and so they are allowed to be adult and intelligent. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: The magic of Summer Hours is that even in its elusiveness, it gives us something to hang onto. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: You won't find filmmaking more assured, commanding and evocative than that of Summer Hours in its opening scenes. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: While the ideas are worth considering, director Olivier Assayas moves the story at an escargot's pace, and the characters are gossamer thin. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: It's a quiet but heartfelt film that has a lot to say about the allure of the past and the inevitability of change. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: Where a Hollywood film of a family feuding over a fabulous estate would surely end with a slapped face and an infantry charge of lawyers, Assayas's work concludes with a smile and a shrug. Life goes on. What else can it do? Read more

Greg Quill, Toronto Star: Performances in this small and profoundly eloquent film are superb, yet none redirects attention from Assayas's earnest meditation on the ravaging effects of a shrinking world on family traditions and entrenched personal relationships. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: As brightly alive a movie as the season will offer. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: This bittersweet meditation on familial bonds, the passage of youth and the merits of tradition is deeply nuanced and strikes just the right emotional notes. Read more

Derek Elley, Variety: Assayas' script is more allusive than demonstrative, with a distinct whiff of Eric Rohmer in its conversational blocks separated by fadeouts. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Too chatty to be ascetic, Summer Hours is nevertheless almost Ozu-like in its evocation of a parent's death and the dissolving bond between the surviving children. Read more

Dan Kois, Washington Post: If this enjoyable film is substantially more satisfying than those predecessors, it's also far less daring, a straightforward extended-family drama in the mode of last year's (more engrossing) art-house highlight A Christmas Tale. Read more