Critic Reviews

• Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

  If Leaving is a romantic parable, it is a dark and depressing one, emphasizing not the sensuality of attraction but rather the obsessive side of romantic behavior. This is mad love for sure, and that is not usually a pretty picture.

• Ty Burr, Boston Globe

  The only reason to see "Leaving'' - and it's not a bad reason at all - is for the sight of Kristin Scott Thomas in a rare happy mood.

• Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post

  If "Leaving" is a story of a broken marriage, what, exactly, went wrong?

• Tom Long, Detroit News

  This is one of those films that depends entirely on its star, and Thomas mixes sexuality, giddy flirtatiousness, stoic determination and agony in just the right amounts, without ever straining.

• Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

  Thomas' face, tremulous with desire one second, steely with anger the next, holds the screen every second. But the actress deserves richer material.

• Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

  Kristin Scott Thomas is not only one of the best English actresses of her generation, she's one of France's best, too.

• Matthew Turner, ViewLondon

  With a terrific central performance from Kristin Scott Thomas, Leaving is a thoroughly gripping emotional drama that plays like a sun-drenched film noir.

• Anthony Quinn, Independent

  Leaving tells the kind of painful story -- of passion, betrayal, revenge -- we might read about every day in the papers, but it is the cool manner of its telling and an outstanding central performance by Kristin Scott Thomas that sharpen our interest.

• Andrew Schenker, Slant Magazine

  This alternation between frenzy and calm is the key to Corsini's aesthetic, a strategy the director employs in order to both introduce a modest tension into her otherwise tired material.

• Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph

  Even for the routinely terrific Kristin Scott Thomas, the infidelity-themed Leaving is a top-drawer thesping workout.

• James Verniere, Boston Herald

  The fact that her children have their lives upended by their mother's yearning for Lopez's low-born, bad-boy loser makes matters both worse and more idiotic than plausible.

• Alicia Potter, Boston Phoenix

  [Thomas] remains a mesmerizing mix of carnality and class, and through richer and poorer, she keeps director/co-writer Catherine Corsini's bourgeois fantasy from overheating.

• Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

  As Suzanne's stair-stepping recklessness leads ever downward, from secret rendezvous to public humiliations to thievery and worse, "Leaving" trades sympathy for surprise.

• Jeff Meyers, Metro Times (Detroit, MI)

  Between the terrific performances and artful cinematography, this is one high-class piece of melodramatic crap.

• Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press

  Thomas, bless her, remains compelling throughout. But it gets harder and harder to watch the things "Leaving" forces her to do.

• Jason Best, Movie Talk

  Corsini's story veers close to lurid melodrama, but her star's performance is ... nakedly honest ... Suzanne risks everything for love ... Scott Thomas is equally fearless.

Read all 16 critic reviews