Jim Broadbent stars in this adaptation of Julian Barnes’s Man Booker Prize winning novel. But does Ritesh Batra’ film impress critics?
The Guardian: *** “Jim Broadbent gives an engaging and sympathetic performance”
The Daily Mail: **** “directed with an attractively light touch by Ritesh Batra.”
Irish Independent: *** “The film ends up occupying an awkward territory between wrenching and redemptive, and “Richard Curtis knock-off”. Nick Payne’s occasionally stagey dialogue, meanwhile, betrays his more natural habitat as a playwright of note.”
Hollywood Reporter: “The director extends sympathy and understanding to all the characters, a talent shared by many great artists, but the courage to confront terrible ironies would also have been required to fully render this tale on the screen.”
The London Economic: “the film presents its audience with one of the most memorable and thoroughly engaging pieces of filmmaking.”
Irish Times: *** “The changes suit the demands of mainstream cinema and the warm aesthetic Batra exhibited in his first film. This is a smart piece of translation.”
Den of Geek: *** “Despite its best efforts even a stellar British cast can’t save this creaky melodrama, which ultimately asks too much from its unappreciated audience.”
The Telegraph: *** “The Sense of an Ending errs on the side of too-orderly – the construction is tickety-boo. And you can sense it ending a mile off.”
Evening Standard: **** “By dispensing with red herrings, director Ritesh Batra and scriptwriter Nick Payne actually sharpen the emotional dynamics.”
The Upcoming: **** “the most poignant aspect of the film is the way in which director Ritesh Batra chooses to represent the past’s influence on the present.”
The Financial Times: *** “Broadbent is a marvel playing horribly against type.”
Time Out: **** “This is a mature film in that it asks us to bring a lot of ourselves to it, preferring observation and introspection to melodrama or any big obvious conclusions.”
The Sense of an Ending is in cinemas now.