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Critic Reviews for Amour - Metacritic
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Amour
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: December 19, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
94
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
42
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallFeb 13, 2013
With Amour, it's the rare feeling of watching a masterpiece unfold. Read full review
100
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonJan 31, 2013
The story is so masterfully told that one can't help but be enthralled. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJan 24, 2013
Amour arrives with plaudits and praise. But this is not hype, it is all deserved. This is a masterpiece. Read full review
100
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJan 24, 2013
This is the sort of small, intimate drama about unpleasant subject matter Hollywood rarely deals with, but Haneke isn't worried about turning off his audience, because death is something everyone has in common. It fascinates us, the way it also scares us. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy BurrJan 17, 2013
What happens between two people? Only the chemistry that keeps us from stumbling through the chaos by ourselves. Is that an illusion, too? Amour says it doesn't much matter. There is no dignity in life except love. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenJan 11, 2013
More arduously, Riva is obliged to act out the physical decline while still registering a full spectrum of emotions. Remarkably, she does it all, even when reduced to communicating with her eyes alone. Hers is, in every sense of the phrase, a nakedly honest performance. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayJan 10, 2013
Amour is a must-see film that not everyone must see, at least right now. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 10, 2013
Small, sure and stunningly acted, this is a picture of exacting control. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJan 9, 2013
An unexpected kind of masterpiece by Haneke, whose films have included the enigmatic "Caché" and the earlier Golden Palm winner "The White Ribbon." We don't expect such unflinching seriousness, such profundity from Haneke. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanJan 2, 2013
In Amour, these two actors show us what love is, what it really looks like, and what it may, at its most secret moments, demand. Read full review
100
The New YorkerAnthony LaneDec 31, 2012
What makes Amour so strong and clear is that it allows Haneke to anatomize his own severity. Read full review
100
SlateDana StevensDec 21, 2012
In the quietly devastating Amour, Haneke's cool, dispassionate gaze feels, for the first time, something like love. Read full review
100
SalonAndrew O'HehirDec 20, 2012
This is an unforgettable love story set at the close of day, as tragic and beautiful in its way as "Tristan und Isolde," and a portrait of the impossible beauty and fragility of life that will yield new experiences to every viewer and every viewing. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 20, 2012
Michael Haneke's French-language Amour, a perfect film about intertwined lives, proceeds at its own pace, and breathes so deeply that it takes your own breath away. Read full review
100
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeDec 19, 2012
All great films have imagination; this one also has the sense of experience. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungDec 18, 2012
Magnificent in its simplicity and its relentless honesty about old age, illness and dying, Michael Haneke's Amour is a deliberately torturous watch. Read full review
100
TimeMary CorlissDec 18, 2012
In the history of movies about love, Amour shall last forever. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasDec 18, 2012
A director known for the icy classicism and genre subversion of films like "Funny Games" and "Caché," Haneke has a pitilessness that could not be more perfect for Amour, which would collapse at any whiff of sentimentality. Read full review
100
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 18, 2012
A masterpiece about life, death and everything in between. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierDec 18, 2012
Small victories that turn into defeats, long walks to gain little ground, little wounds that get deeper every day - growing old is a war, and movies rarely go there. Michael Haneke's amazing, dignified Amour is the exception. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinDec 18, 2012
Something sacred passes between Trintignant and Riva. The actress's eyes signal deep awareness as the sounds coming out of her mouth become animalistic. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranDec 18, 2012
A perfect storm of a motion picture, with an icy, immaculate director unexpectedly taking on deeply emotional subject matter. Read full review
100
ObserverRex ReedDec 12, 2012
Don't let Amour join the legion of "Best Films You Never Saw." I urge you to share its sweetness and wisdom, and learn something. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawNov 18, 2012
The icy message may be that love is not a consolation as we face death. Rather the reverse. Love will give your death meaning, but make it no less unbearable. Read full review
100
EmpireDavid HughesNov 12, 2012
Michael Haneke's Palme D'Or winner is uncomfortable, uncompromising, unflinching... and utterly unmissable. Old age may not be a reality you wish to confront, but you must see this film. Read full review
100
Total FilmJamie GrahamNov 12, 2012
A compassionate, masterful work that deservedly won Haneke a second Palme d'Or after "The White Ribbon's" 2009 victory. Best to avoid on a first date, though. Read full review
100
VarietyPeter DebrugeNov 12, 2012
Considering Haneke's confrontational past, this poignantly acted, uncommonly tender two-hander makes a doubly powerful statement about man's capacity for dignity and sensitivity when confronted with the inevitable cruelty of nature. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianMarc MohanJan 24, 2013
While what's on screen is unsparing and clinically presented, the underlying, almost invisible humanity and artistry of the film inspire rather than depress. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnDec 20, 2012
Although not exactly heartwarming, Amour has a more contained vision of human relationships than Haneke's previous films without sacrificing its bleak foundation. It's his most conventional movie about death -- and the most poignant. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJan 10, 2013
Riva, meanwhile, is astounding, not just in the way she portrays the physical manifestation of her decline, particularly later in the film, but also earlier, when she knows she is fading and does not wish to do so. The look in her eyes, the sadness in her face, is crushing. Read full review
90
NPRElla TaylorDec 20, 2012
At his provocative best, though - in his brilliant, gorgeous 2009 film "The White Ribbon," a study of the roots of fascism in domestic tyranny, and now in Amour - Haneke implicates us in the full range of human capacity. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJan 24, 2013
Love means being helpmates throughout all of life's stages. Death is part of love's bargain, and Haneke lays this fact bare. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanFeb 13, 2013
The superb Trintignant and the Oscar-nominated Riva – who would win, in a just world – embody once-vigorous people in inevitable decline. Yet as another critic has said, the film is sad without being depressing. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 26, 2012
This may sound depressing and, in a sense it is, but these things are part of life and Haneke conveys them with a simplicity that is heartbreaking. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 13, 2012
These two glam stars of French cinema – Riva in 1959's "Hiroshima Mon Amour" and Trintignant in 1966's "A Man and a Woman" – give performances of breathtaking power and beauty. Prepare for an emotional wipeout. Read full review
83
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthDec 23, 2012
Amour is nevertheless the work of a filmmaker who isn't afraid to ask the big questions about human nature, and coming out of Amour it seems the director has hope for us yet. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottFeb 16, 2013
Amour is a far cry from the warm-and-fuzzy version of love that most people are probably looking for on Valentine's Day. This movie is more of a slap than a hug. But reality hurts sometimes - just like love does. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazineJames RocchiDec 26, 2012
Audiences smart and tough enough to seek the film out will have their own reward. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfDec 11, 2012
It's not an easy sit; we're never let off the hook with golden-hued memories or belated bits of wisdom. Maybe this is love after all. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 10, 2013
Amour is also unforgettable and one of a kind, two hours of torment that, in the end, you will probably not regret. Read full review
70
MovielineAlison WillmoreDec 12, 2012
For all that it is, as promised, about love, it's also a subtly punishing affair that grinds you into the ground as you watch an elderly couple deal with one member's slow deterioration of health and sanity. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 21, 2012
Because of its subject matter, and because of the actors, it's impossible to watch this film without being moved. But a martinet is running the show. Read full review
50
Village VoiceNick PinkertonDec 18, 2012
Haneke remains, by his rules, infallible. So what? A movie in which incident is as spare as it is in Amour can certainly be great; a movie in which ideas and feelings are so sparse cannot. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineCalum MarshNov 12, 2012
This isn't the work of a newly moral or humanistic filmmaker, but another ruse by the same unscrupulous showman whose funny games have been beguiling us for years. Read full review
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