Critic Reviews

• Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

  The film is a matter of Brenda Blethyn's performance vs. Sotigui Kouyate's presence.

• Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic

  It would be nice to say that Bouchareb, who also wrote and directed "Days of Glory" and "Outside the Law," succeeds. He does not entirely. But he doesn't fail, either.

• Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News

  Blethyn and Kouyaté inhabit and expand the film's earnestly instructive intentions, leaving us with a deeply-felt experience rather than a naively-sketched lesson.

• V.A. Musetto, New York Post

  "London River'' features on-target acting by its two leads, but they receive scant support from the wobbly plot.

• Stephen Holden, New York Times

  Demonstrates how great acting can infuse a banal, politically correct drama with dollops of emotional truth.

• David Fear, Time Out New York

  There's such a graceful sense of restraint in how this real-life tragedy is treated, one that filters any potential for ripped-from-yesterday's-headlines sensationalism through a respectful requiem of loss and grief.

• Mark R. Leeper, Mark Leeper's Reviews

  Though the arc of the story is fairly predictable, Brenda Blethyn and Sotigui Kouyate bring humanity to their roles.

• Mike Scott, Times-Picayune

  There isn't a whole lot of nuance in writer-director Rachid Bouchareb's unapologetically political story. But Blethyn's performance ultimately draws viewers in.

• Fr. Chris Carpenter, Movie Dearest

  Powerful. Director Rachid Bouchareb draws excellent, haunting performances from Blethyn and Kouyate. Ultimately moving and cautionary, "London River" shouldn't be missed.

• Louis Proyect, rec.arts.movies.reviews

  Not surprisingly, the choice of the actress who played lead female character in Mike Leigh's "Secrets and Lies" betrays an affinity for Leigh in more than just the casting--and there's nothing wrong with that.

• Nora Lee Mandel, Film-Forward.com

  [T]wo strangers surprisingly find that horror makes the globalization of terror very personal [with] Blethyn's convincing performance [as] a desperate mother.

• Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice

  An engaging morality play about the quest of an English woman and an African Muslim to find their children after the 2005 terrorist attack in London.

• Clay Cane, BET.com

  Bouchareb's greatest accomplishment is successfully tackling class, grief and Islamophobia.

• Andrew Schenker, Slant Magazine

  Although the film occasionally cuts away to contextualized clips from news reports, it keeps its focus small-scale, filtering the world historical through the intimately personal.

• Liz Braun, Jam! Movies

  The film's message about these worried individuals and the larger family of all humanity is a bit obvious at times, but the performances keep you watching.

• Enrique Buchichio, Uruguay Total

  Un retrato humano, sobrio y sensible, que reflexiona sobre los prejuicios y la tolerancia racial, cultural y religiosa en el contexto de los atentados terroristas de Londres. Estupenda labor de sus dos protagonistas.

Read all 16 critic reviews