77
Metascore
16 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiRogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiThis is a work just as startling and potent as anything she has done to date — a powerful example of art being used to exorcise personal demons that is anchored by two stunning performances and some of the most gripping moments to be seen in any film so far this year.
- 90Village VoiceZachary WigonVillage VoiceZachary WigonBreillat's impressive film is a study of bodies and how we carry them, and it explores the manner in which weakness seeks out strength on an almost primal level, bypassing the higher modes of human thought.
- Abuse of Weakness is a frustrating experience, yet one that feels utterly unique and relentlessly watchable.
- 80VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeOf all living actresses, only Huppert could capture nuances that alternately elicit sympathy and fierce sexual attraction to a recent stroke victim.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijThe Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijLike in all of the director’s work, psychologically reductive readings of the characters are absent, though intriguing performances give audiences a way into the material.
- 75Slant MagazineSlant MagazineBreillat's scripting of Maud as fatally distant from her family, willfully independent, but more believably abandoned, is haunting.
- 75New York PostSara StewartNew York PostSara StewartIn Abuse of Weakness, Breillat, notorious for her sexually explicit films, casts the excellent Isabelle Huppert as her avatar, Maud, to tell the tale.
- 75Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattEntertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattHuppert is a wonder, inhabiting every iota of rage and froideur and helplessness; if only the movie's motives were as lucid as her performance.
- 70The DissolveScott TobiasThe DissolveScott TobiasAbuse Of Weakness is the director’s attempt to account for actions that seem inexplicable, and make the audience understand and sympathize in kind.
- 70The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenIt is hard to imagine that any other actress could muster the stubborn ferocity that Isabelle Huppert brings to the role of Maud.