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Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: A fine, gentle film love story and a cinematic tribute to the power and manifold benefits of communications between different cultures and nations. Read more
Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Dai's episodic treatment has the force of memory, equally embracing the beautiful, the bittersweet and the absurd. Read more
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: [A] tribute to the transforming power of books. Read more
Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic: The film is episodic, and most of the scenes are evocative and charming. Read more
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: It's a lovely little movie about very big things, and the smallness both illuminates it and keeps it from greatness. Read more
Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: The transformation of the Little Seamstress is ambiguous and bittersweet and leaves you with the feeling that, like a character out of Balzac, her story will be one of loss of innocence. Read more
Patrick Z. McGavin, Chicago Reader: The ethereal private moments and inspired passages are beautifully shot by Jean-Marie Dreujou, but Dai never quite organizes the material dramatically, and the tone is too often jagged and disruptive. Read more
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Dai Sijie has created a dreamy memory of hardship -- part familiar Chinese parable, part familiar French romance. Read more
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: It's a bittersweet and lyrical mix of elements. Read more
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: A nifty little film about the powers of culture and the humanities. Read more
Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is by turns merry, tough-minded and sweetly nostalgic. Read more
Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: It's a fanciful tale, but the message is sweet -- that the higher arts speak a universal language that transcends politics and ignorance. Read more
A.O. Scott, New York Times: Dai Sijie's tender, touching adaptation of his own novel of the same title. Read more
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Its well-earned humanistic frissons should serve as a wake-up call for the great majority of American movies, with their inexhaustible supply of smugness and complacency. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: [A] charmer. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Offers its share of little pleasures, but falls short of the greatness to which it aspires. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The elements in the story push all the right buttons, but the buttons don't seem to be wired to anything. Read more
Jonathan Curiel, San Francisco Chronicle: Sweet, funny, sad and profound -- the sort of film that becomes more remarkable when you realize it's based on someone's real life. Read more
Susan Walker, Toronto Star: A delightful fable about the enduring value of literature. Read more
Ed Park, Village Voice: Though the film lacks some of the paper incarnation's subtlety, Dai's infidelity to his own text keeps things interesting. Read more
Desson Thomson, Washington Post: If the movie is straightforward and predictable in its attitude, it also exudes a sort of documentary lyricism. Read more
Teresa Wiltz, Washington Post: Visually, Balzac is a jewel of a movie, with panoramic vistas of the lake on the mountain, framed in mist, where the villagers, in a haunting nighttime ceremony, float candlelit paper boats bearing the names of their dearly departed. Read more