Critic Reviews

• Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

  [Nanni] Moretti makes this 'study' in despair a naggingly neutral, at times borderline coy experience.

• V.A. Musetto, New York Post

  Moretti gives his usual excellent performance. But the script throws in too many other elements while it should be concentrating on the father-daughter relationship.

• A.O. Scott, New York Times

  The film, while uneven -- sometimes too on the nose, sometimes anecdotal and diffuse -- is generally absorbing, thanks mostly to the quality of the acting.

• Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York

  Unfortunately, Quiet Chaos can't help but become heated, and a ridiculous climax sabotages much of the emotional weight.

• Ella Taylor, Village Voice

  Not even the momentary participation extraordinaire of a vertically challenged famous filmmaker self-exiled from the United States can save this phony pseudo-drama from its final collapse into a heap of inconsequence and male vanity.

• Dave Calhoun, Time Out

  A thoughtful portrait of the purgatory of grief that prefers small incidences and exchanges over grand gestures of sentiment and revelation. It's sad - but never cloying.

• Andrew Schenker, Slant Magazine

  Grief has rarely felt quite so empty as it does in Quiet Chaos.

• Kent Turner, Film-Forward.com

  Quiet Chaos jerkily shifts tones, from oddly comic ... to blunt. And by blunt I mean an indiscreet, in-your-face sex scene that turns the viewer from observer to pervy voyeur.

• Richard Mowe, Boxoffice Magazine

  Grimaldi's sensitive direction, allied to a subtle score by Paolo Buonvino, sharp script and accomplished acting, helps to turn this into an original and complex study of the unpredictability of human foibles and weaknesses.

• Julie Rigg, MovieTime, ABC Radio National

  Quiet Chaos has strength and insight about the experiences that cause us to change direction in life.

• Mark Demetrius, FILMINK (Australia)

  Some of the plot is implausible, yet the core ideas resonate richly, and the characters' behaviour is psychologically intriguing.

• Des Partridge, Daily Telegraph (Australia)

  [Moretti delivers] a complex and complete performance...

• Jake Wilson, The Age (Australia)

  Touching and sentimental in equal measure, Quiet Chaos exhibits many traits that fans will recognise from Moretti's own films as director, such as Caro Diario (1993) and The Son's Room (2001).

• David Stratton, At the Movies (Australia)

  A respectable and always watchable film about bereavement, well acted and well made.

• Sandra Hall, Sydney Morning Herald

  It's subtle stuff with an appealing lack of contrivance and there is something very natural about its resolution.

• Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile

  It's like a psychological study, but performed with grace and humanity

• Louise Keller, Urban Cinefile

  Quiet Chaos is an apt description for the emotional state of Nanni Moretti's grieving widower Pietro, in a film whose central theme is grief, but that plays out with a mix of humour and acceptance

• Urban Cinefile Critics, Urban Cinefile

  Moretti's imposing frame and presence form the heart of this unexpected tale about love, relationships and loss.

• Sam Toy, Empire Magazine

  Don't expect anything too profound from this middleweight fare - but it'll still be better than the inevitable remake.

• Kevin Maher, Times [UK]

  The boldest stroke in Nanni Moretti's Quiet Chaos is in what it doesn't do, rather than what it does.

Read all 20 critic reviews