Critic Reviews

• Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

  An impeccably acted character drama revolving around a mother and her teenage twin sons, Private Property shows how strong and how terrifying the bonds within families can be.

• Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

  What draws us into "Private Property" is how so many things happen under the surface, never commented upon. At any given moment, we cannot say for sure what the characters fully feel, since they often act at right angles to their emotions.

• Tasha Robinson, Chicago Tribune

  [Director] Lafosse's frustrating, yet beautifully elegiac coda emphasizes the point that his production and storytelling style have been making throughout: Private Property is about processes, not conclusions.

• Melissa Anderson, Time Out New York

  Sometimes the path of excess leads not to the tower of wisdom, but to exhaustion.

• Andrew Sarris, New York Observer

  Lafosse has made a mordant movie beyond genres -- and one that is too mesmerizing to miss.

• V.A. Musetto, New York Post

  Huppert is, as usual, superb, proving yet again that she is the finest actress working in France today.

• Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]

  Intense and very involving drama by Belgian director Joachim Lafosse.

• James Christopher, Times [UK]

  Brilliantly acted but oppressively dour.

• Steve Watson, Film4

  Ingeniously uncomfortable but occasionally too opaque, Private Property is a darkly inventive family drama.

• Tom Dawson, Total Film

  Thanks to the acuity of their performances, the old adage "You always hurt the ones you love" rings new and true.

• Jamie Russell, BBC

  Huppert is superb, her lonely heroine both sympathetically vulnerable and yet also slightly culpable for her sons' terribly selfish behaviour.

• Elliott Noble, Sky Movies

  Save the effort by asking the neighbours if you can come round for ten minutes every night for a week. A wet week. Before pay day.

• David Parkinson, Empire Magazine

  There's not a wasted word and the performances are impressive in Joachim Lafosse's hugely impressive film.

• Don Willmott, Filmcritic.com

  Once again Europe shows Hollywood how to put together a funny, sexy, scary, thought-provoking drama and pack it into 90 intense minutes

• Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly

  The effect of all this acting out is less erotic than helplessly childish.

• Jules Brenner, Cinema Signals

  Lafosse gives it an arbitrary rest without clearing up a few mysteries, which unfortunately means he doesn't have to acknowledge or deal with them.

• Scott Tobias, AV Club

  It wouldn't be accurate to call Private Property a thriller, but it has a slow-burning intensity that's oddly suspenseful, and it shifts gears effectively once the tense family dynamic suddenly changes.

• Jeff Vice, Deseret News, Salt Lake City

  French actress Isabelle Huppert has made a career out of playing women on the verge of ... something. Suicide, nervous breakdowns, disastrous affairs -- you name it, Huppert's characters have had it.

• Prairie Miller, WBAI Web Radio

  The conflicts that unfold within this both familiar and eccentric family provide a portrait of such delicacy and dramatic illumination, that one can almost forgive Lafosse for yet another bad mommy blame game on screen when it comes to society's ills.

• Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide's Movie Guide

  [Director] Lafosse's razor sharp dissection of relationships strained to the breaking point is hypnotic in a road-accident kind of way.

Read all 20 critic reviews