Critic Reviews

• Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times

  A rambling road movie with noble intentions and an excess of speechifying.

• Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

  A minor movie on a major subject, a drama with an almost unbearable lightness.

• Robert Denerstein, Denver Rocky Mountain News

  The movie -- a metaphor for the tangled, impossible state of Israeli/Palestinian relations -- only intermittently clicks.

• Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star

  Without fail, Gitai's determination to churn everything into metaphoric mud prevails.

• Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

  Too slight as a metaphor for the larger catastrophe of the Mideast, too preachy to work as an emotionally compelling drama.

• Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News

  Much of the dialogue is didactic and pedantic. And when not didactic and pedantic, it's plodding and dull.

• Robert Davis, Paste Magazine

  There's an art to ambiguity -- there really is... Left to their own devices, viewers will fill in the blanks, but when the movie starts filling them in itself, you have to wonder about the mismatch.

• Jordan Hiller, Bangitout.com

  While Portman does outshine everyone and everything on screen and though she certainly gets credit for making the résumé sacrifice in the spirit of embracing her heritage, Free Zone does nothing for her in return

• MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher

  [A] film of unexpected power and strange tenderness...

• Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central

  Without much effort you can imagine the corkboard littered with index cards mapping out the political clashes this cast is asked to act out in their robotic interactions.

• Eric Monder, Film Journal International

  Much of it is labored and overemphatic.

• Ryan Cracknell, Calgary Movies

  Free Zone is a powerful film -- definitely not what you'd expect from Natalie Portman. Thought provoking and visually pleasing, this is one you will want to track down.

• Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

  The elder actresses simmer as they warily interact, but the dialogue is more schematic than dramatic...

• Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle

  The milieu he chooses -- essentially one long, queerly prosaic car ride to nowhere -- robs the film of much of its dramatic force.

• Michael Dequina, TheMovieReport.com

  Portman and the audience are stranded in the middle, on the outside looking in, with nothing to do and patience increasingly wearing thin.

• Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

  An exceptional new film.

• Todd Jorgenson, Denton Record Chronicle (TX)

  ...never seems to gain much emotional traction throughout its meandering female road trip, despite some provocative subject matter.

• Luke Y. Thompson, New Times

  Shot mostly in close-ups, it's a fascinating road movie with an absurdist allegorical finale.

Read all 18 critic reviews