70
Metascore
7 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90The New York TimesBen KenigsbergThe New York TimesBen KenigsbergIt’s the rare page-to-screen adaptation in which the camera becomes an essential character. The action often unfolds in long shot, with crowded compositions in which the principals are obscured by door frames. Over time, the withholding of conventional editing patterns and the sensitization to subtle changes in camera placement become an analogue for Emanuel’s entrapment.
- 88Slant MagazineClayton DillardSlant MagazineClayton DillardDespite the film's bleak premise, writer-director Radu Jude finds dark humor within the certainty of death.
- 80The New YorkerRichard BrodyThe New YorkerRichard BrodyThe director, Radu Jude, unfolds the horrific treatment, involving long needles, tight wraps, and a full-body cast, with an unflinching and fascinated specificity that contrasts with the teeming theatrical tableaux in which he films life in the lavish facility.
- 80Screen DailyAllan HunterScreen DailyAllan HunterJude makes us think and makes us feel and succeeds in making Blecher a presence in the film.
- 50VarietyJay WeissbergVarietyJay WeissbergEmanuel’s likeability (more apparent in the film than in Blecher’s novel) unquestionably helps bridge the extended running time, and Solange is a fascinating character, liberated yet still drawn to the scene of her hospitalization. The film also has a sense of humor...but the project never quite comes together.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijThe Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijWhereas Aferim! was a thrilling epic that uncovered a piece of Romanian history heretofore largely ignored, Hearts hardly develops a pulse, hiding the faces of the protagonists in immobile medium and wide shots while any possible emotions get snowed under by non-contextualized intellectual musings and socio-politico-historical details.