67
Metascore
14 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80EmpireAnna SmithEmpireAnna SmithAn insight-filled take on prejudice in post-11/7 London that packs a hefty punch.
- 80Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinLos Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinBlethyn brings tremendous empathy to the introspective, determined Elisabeth, while the tall, gaunt and dreadlocked Ousmane fleshes out his less-dimensional role with a haunting sadness that speaks volumes.
- 80Time OutDavid FearTime OutDavid FearIt's a credit to both the actors and Franco-Algerian filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb (Days of Glory) that the film never dives headfirst into mawkishness.
- 75Slant MagazineAndrew SchenkerSlant MagazineAndrew SchenkerRachid Bouchareb casts his account of the horrifying aftermath of tragedy on an intimate scale, allowing the halting words and frightened faces of his two leads to tell us as much as we need to know about the uncertainties of those faced with tracking down their lost loved ones.
- 75The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenHere, in orderly fiction, the reverberations bring about the alignment of cultures, the meeting of minds and the comforting assertion that "our lives aren't that different." Maybe so, and the film deserves full marks for trying, at times movingly, to convince us. In the end, the argument is a little too neat to accept, but far too poignant to ignore.
- 70Village VoiceVillage VoiceDirector Rachid Bouchareb brings a measured hand to this intimate, occasionally overdetermined sketch of the aloneness at the center of our global confluence.
- 60New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNew York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanThe script, co-written by Bouchareb, is regrettably simplistic. But Blethyn and Kouyaté inhabit and expand the film's earnestly instructive intentions, leaving us with a deeply-felt experience rather than a naively-sketched lesson.
- 60The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenRachid Bouchareb's tidy little two-character film, London River, demonstrates how great acting can infuse a banal, politically correct drama with dollops of emotional truth.
- 50New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoThe contrived script lacks subtlety, rendering most characters as stereotypes.