The Women on the 6th Floor (2011)

Critic Reviews

• Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

  The film doesn't blaze adventurous new trails, but it dramatizes the stories of those underappreciated servants with an engaging mix of romance, droll humor and upstairs-downstairs social consciousness.

• Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post

  [It] has drama, comedy, romance and class politics. It also introduces an element of ethnic prejudice to the mix.

• J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader

  This agreeable French comedy wears its class consciousness on its sleeve but functions primarily as bourgeois light entertainment.

• Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

  "The Women on the 6th Floor" is a pleasant movie, even-tempered, a romantic fantasy.

• Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

  A sporadically amusing, occasionally off-putting French farce.

• Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

  The period detail grounds it and gives us an interesting look into class as it existed in France some 45 years ago.

• Rebecca Barry, Flicks.co.nz

  What is an occasionally charming upstairs/downstairs comedy is overshadowed by one unintentionally creepy relationship.

• Keith Cohen, Entertainment Spectrum

  This delightful slice-of-life observation on class distinctions will make you feel good inside. Luchini carries the movie as the central character with physical mannerisms that have a comedic bent. Other strengths include...

• Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, Ebert Presents At The Movies

  They romanticize the whole idea of these women. I mean, they're all essentially interchangeable.

• Matthew Toomey, ABC Radio Brisbane

  Fabrice Luchini (Potiche) is immensely likeable as the film's shy leading man and the chatty maids have a humorous, cheeky disposition.

• Rob Thomas, Capital Times (Madison, WI)

  The film is better at exploring the human connection between Jean-Louis and the maids as a group than it is delving into a romantic connection between Jean-Louis and Maria.

• Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile

  A wonderful ensemble piece of work, with plenty of texture, a few well observed social barbs (as is usual in films about the bourgeoisie) and occasionally unexpected twists and turns

• Louise Keller, Urban Cinefile

  The distance between the bourgeoisie and the working class has never been so delightfully measured as in this delicious upstairs downstairs comedy

• Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle

  Charming performances and the naivete of the characters go a long way toward smoothing over the characters' perpetuation of class distinctions and patronizing attitudes.

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

  It's entertaining in a French, relax-it's-just-sex kind of way.

• Margaret Pomeranz, At the Movies (Australia)

  It is enjoyable on a certain level but the simplistic representation of these warm-blooded women cracking open the frigidity of the French middle class becomes a bit hard to swallow after a while

• Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

  A sweet yet occasionally heavy-handed comedy about class relations in 1962 Paris...

• Sarah Boslaugh, Playback:stl

  The Women on the 6th Floor is a boulevard comedy par excellence, a well-made film secure in its assumptions, which offers pleasant and mostly unchallenging entertainment if you're willing to enter its world.

Read all 18 critic reviews