Critic Reviews

• Peter Howell, Toronto Star

  A carefully drawn portrait of family life.

• Janice Page, Boston Globe

  A respectable addition to the tragic three sisters oeuvre.

• Rick Groen, Globe and Mail

  Always engaging and often compelling.

• Stephen Holden, New York Times

  Takes the raw ingredients of soap opera -- the spilling of family secrets and the opening of old wounds as a parent slips away -- and spins them into something truthful and quietly compelling.

• Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

  While the situations and characterizations ring true, if a bit melodramatically, the film is so understated that little dramatic effect registers.

• Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle

  Parker is very good at conveying Agnes' wobbly mixture of instability and emotional bravery, and Jenkins finds the sad, lonely ache below Theresa's urge to regiment the lives of everyone in the family.

• Brian Gibson, Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)

  Too many scenes are colourless and unimaginative...There's a gap between the pedestrianism of life and the necessary dramatic tension of art [that] this film never bridges.

• Louis B. Hobson, Jam! Movies

  Given Marion Bridge trots out almost every cliche of the chick flick, it is all the more remarkable that it works as well as it does.

• Liz Braun, Jam! Movies

  You'll like it because it's really intelligent.

• , E! Online

  The flick takes its sweet time to deliver the unsolvable life situations in a delicate, real way -- playing out like a good book -- and the solid cast is totally in sync with its rhythm.

• Katrina Onstad, National Post

  [von Carolsfeld's] instincts -- to trust an audience; to be patient and poetic -- are exactly right.

• Laura Clifford, Reeling Reviews

  This family drama adapted from his play by Canadian writer/actor Daniel MacIvor ("The Five Senses") plays like a Chekovian take on "Aberdeen"

• Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide's Movie Guide

  Small but beautifully acted drama.

• Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

  The gray, lazy Nova Scotia atmosphere helps a great deal.; the cold and fog permeate the film indoors as well as out.

• David Poland, Hot Button

  Takes you by surprise by coming right at you, then slowly sneaking around behind you, integrating you into this family.

Read all 15 critic reviews