Stephanie Daley 2007

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: A movie that can wound you. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Apart from Swinton's fine performance, what largely distinguishes this is Brougher's sharp narrative focus. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: With a calmness that bespeaks confidence, this small, spellbinding second feature by Hilary Brougher brings together two women, trapped in separate states of denial and distress, who manage to end each other's entrapment. Read more

Janice Page, Boston Globe: Tamblyn's surprisingly measured performance commands attention. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: To see Tamblyn's work here, to see her character almost simultaneously embody pain, terror, anguish, embarrassment, regret and just about any emotion you can think of, is to watch the kind of acting the medium exists to provide. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: [Director Braugher] does get at something rarely broached in movies: The abject fear that some women experience regarding their impending childbirth. The fear is not an existential one, it's basic -- a fear of physical pain. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: This lacerating drama from writer-director Hilary Brougher shines a piercing light onto some of the hidden terrors of women, especially in an era when abstinence can shade into ignorance. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: Most persuasive as a realist family drama made by a writer-director whose forte is the accretion of quotidian detail that, as much as any crisis, tells us who her characters are. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: Brougher's film would seem more like the drudge work of a lot of made-for-TV melodramas if it weren't for its plausibly raw suburban atmosphere and the zone of intimacy established by both co-producer Swinton and, especially, Tamblyn. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Stephanie Daley has a few overly arty moments, yet there's a careful and very welcome literary feel to its story, and something heartbreakingly real about the characters it contains. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: A subject that could easily devolve into malaise-of-the-week TV fodder is treated with all the complexity it is due. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: The movie amounts to an extended short story that progresses slowly and fades away with key questions unanswered. Ambiguity isn't necessarily interesting. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: You are likely to be discussing this film long into the night. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: A major American film, announcing the arrival of an independent director who deserves all the hype. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: The acting is uniformly on a high level. Tamblyn is impressive, and Swinton, as usual, is outstanding. Read more

Melissa Anderson, Time Out: For all Brougher's smart choices, her film is frequently compromised by too much tidiness. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: A ripped-from-the-headlines premise -- a teenage mother accused of killing her newborn -- provides the catalyst for a taut, provocative, sometimes overreaching but always absorbing thriller. Read more

Ed Gonzalez, Village Voice: There's an unpretentious complexity to Brougher's paralleling of Stephanie and Lydia's private lives, and though the story is littered with contrivance, the actresses keep things recognizably human. Read more