Critic Reviews

• Lou Lumenick, New York Post

  Stengarde gives an arresting performance as a mentally unstable woman.

• Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

  The film never particularly achieves any depth or resonance and ultimately comes across as a series of wacky, albeit rather disturbing episodes.

• Laura Sinagra, Village Voice

  Despite Kira's Reason's chamber-drama focus, it never achieves [Madsen's] first film's intimacy.

• Marta Barber, Miami Herald

  In Stine Stengade's intensely engaging performance, Kira is always one step away from the abyss, although, without apparent effort, she manages to hang on.

• Stephen Holden, New York Times

  Tying up the psychological loose ends of a movie that promised so much more, the trite ending subscribes to the bogus therapeutic notion that one good cry and a confession of vulnerability can wipe away a lifetime of repression.

• Brian Gibson, Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)

  An incredibly touching ride along the jilting, jarring ups-and-downs of a deeply, madly loving relationship, where two people never quit trying, and failing, together.

• MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher

  [S]tunning... a sometimes painfully intimate peek at a crumbling marriage...

• Kent Turner, Film-Forward.com

  As [Kira's] actions become more impulsive and her marriage unravels, the film is engagingly unpredictable.

• Dan Jardine, Apollo Guide

  As this feature was originally recorded on digital video, the transfer on the DVD is clear and crisp.

• Dan Jardine, Apollo Guide

  Its pat finale ill-befits a film that otherwise strives successfully for stark emotional realism.

• Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

  ...Stengade's portrayal of a mad housewife is alternately arresting and repelling, the kind of work for which they ought to hand out statues.

• Kim Williamson, Boxoffice Magazine

  Had the film's center been the husband, it would have been more intriguing.

• Laine Ewen, Premiere Magazine

  Stengade, in her first leading role, is at once vulnerable and frighteningly manic.

• Maria Garcia, Film Journal International

  While Madsen and his Dogme 95 colleagues seek to overcome Hollywood's influence, Kira's Reason is an indication that they are a product of the same patriarchy.

• , E! Online

  This Danish import provides a showcase for the lead actors, especially wide-eyed Stengade, who manages sensuality amid all the emotional volatility.

• Prairie Miller, Long Island Press

  Steeped in a chaotic intensity that characterizes a fractured, disoriented mind.

• Jon Popick, Planet Sick-Boy

  The most colorful Dogme film, and the best to portray beauty, albeit damaged beauty.

• Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide's Movie Guide

  [Allows] the actors to inhabit characters who are painfully contradictory, frustrating, flawed, vulnerable and bound to each other.

Read all 18 critic reviews