The Lady (2012)

33% of critics liked it
(63 reviews)
65% of users liked it
(5,578 ratings)

The Lady is the extraordinary story of Aung San Suu Kyi and her husband, Michael Aris. It is also the epic story of the peaceful quest of the woman who is at the core of Burma's democracy movement. Despite distance, long separations, and a dangerously hostile regime, their love endures until the… More The Lady is the extraordinary story of Aung San Suu Kyi and her husband, Michael Aris. It is also the epic story of the peaceful quest of the woman who is at the core of Burma's democracy movement. Despite distance, long separations, and a dangerously hostile regime, their love endures until the very end. A story of devotion and human understanding set against a backdrop of political turmoil that continues today. The Lady was written over a period of three years by Rebecca Frayn. Interviews with key figures in Aung San Suu Kyi's entourage enabled her to reconstruct for the first time the true story of Burma's national heroine. -- (C) Cohen Media Group

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Rating, Runtime: R, 2 hr. 25 min.
Directed By: Luc Besson
Written By: Rebecca Frayn
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Apr 13, 2012 Limited
Studio: Cohen Media Group

Critic Reviews

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail
The Lady is a slog, a two-and-a-half hour, painted-on-wood exercise in political iconography.
John Anderson, Newsday
"The Lady" is a two-hour trip into earnestness, from which audiences will want a little liberation of their own.
Linda Barnard, Toronto Star
The Lady is little more than a history lesson - although a beautifully presented one - wrapped in the pink gloss of a G-rated potboiler evidenced in Suu Kyi's and Michael's storybook romance.
Adam Bernstein, Washington Post
A heavy-handed attempt to sanctify one of the most dignified and uncompromising politicians and human rights champions of recent times.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
[It] does indeed deal with a real life, but follows so faithfully the traditional shape of film biography that it feels less convincing.
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
This hagiography of Myanmar's Nobel Peace Prize-winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, is earnest, civilized and borderline unendurable.
Marty Mapes, Movie Habit
Biopic of Ang San Suu Kyi a notch above the rest
Robert Denerstein, Movie Habit
Great person, but not a great movie
Josh Bell, Las Vegas Weekly
Besson hits familiar biopic beats, but the formula could have used something a little more daring to liven things up.
Kelly Vance, East Bay Express
It doesn't rouse the spirit. It barely breathes.
Frank Swietek, One Guy's Opinion
A stately, high-minded historical docudrama that's long--very long--on hagiography but extremely short on energy.
Blake Howard, 2UE That Movie Show
The Lady doesn't do justice to the amazing life and democratic crusade of Aung San Suu Kyi despite excellent performances by David Thewlis and Michelle Yeoh.
Nora Lee Mandel, Film-Forward.com
Well-meaning biopic will barely satisfy people's curiosity about a little-seen woman. Played up as more tragic personal sacrifice than politics, she remains a noble symbol.
Matthew Pejkovic, Matt's Movie Reviews
As far as biopics stand Besson has spared no expense in creating as authentic and presentable a movie as he could with The Lady. Yet he has failed to tap into that sense of outrage, sadness and hope that a story like this should conjure.
Annlee Ellingson, Paste Magazine
Ambitious and slightly lengthy, the film presents a sequence of events that, though in hindsight a bit of a muddle, leaves an unforgettable impression of a fascinating couple.
Simon Miraudo, Quickflix
It's not without faults, but as a piece of illuminating and occasionally - dare I say it - inspirational entertainment, The Lady has my vote.
Vadim Rizov, Boxoffice Magazine
Stolidly maudlin, this enervating sub-middlebrow pic is doomed to well-deserved commercial obscurity.
Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile
Recommended for anyone interested in how a lone woman can alter history with a strict code of anti- violence - as did moral giants such as Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela among others. It's inspirational and reassuring
Todd Jorgenson, Cinemalogue.com
Yeoh's performance and Besson's visuals are each more compelling than the script, which leaves its inspirational true-life subject stranded amid formulaic melodrama.

Read all 19 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Anthony L

Luc Besson is a great director but this film lacks the passion it deserves. I'm afraid he has done Aung San Suu Kyi a great injustice by making a half-hearted biopic of her life. Unless of coarse it was his intention of making a film about the life of her husband, then he did a… More
Luc Besson is a great director but this film lacks the passion it deserves. I'm afraid he has done Aung San Suu Kyi a great injustice by making a half-hearted biopic of her life. Unless of coarse it was his intention of making a film about the life of her husband, then he did a pretty good job as David Thewlis's Michael Aris took up most of the film - the camera often hanging on him for embarrassing lengths of time for a credible director. For all the great moments in this film, and there are a few, there are three times as many pointless, ill-conceived and ridiculous ones. I love David Thewlis but Besson does not get his potential out of him, the two actors playing their sons can act for candy and poor Michelle Yeoh isn't given the chance to play, what could have been, the performance of her life. For what little screen time she is given, she does a great job but what Aung San Suu Kyi did for Burma is barely hinted at in this mess of a film.
Carlos M

Besson proves he is not the proper director for a subject like this, turning a real story into a conventional, underwhelming movie and stretching it forever. Still, Michelle Yeoh does her best to confer an aura of elegance and honor to a character that utters cheap soundbites every… More
Besson proves he is not the proper director for a subject like this, turning a real story into a conventional, underwhelming movie and stretching it forever. Still, Michelle Yeoh does her best to confer an aura of elegance and honor to a character that utters cheap soundbites every time to justify her poorly developed actions.