45 Years
Sundance Selects | Release Date: December 23, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
94
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 28, 2016
45 Years is very much an English film and in the best sense. It’s subtle, understated and ultimately devastating, but only if you’re paying attention. Read full review
100
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJan 27, 2016
“Subtle” is the watchword for this kind of arthouse film. That can be a backhanded compliment, a buyer-beware to attention-deficit audiences, but Haigh is really quite plain with his preoccupations: the constant tick-tock of time, and the illusion that in marriage two are melded into one. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 21, 2016
It's more than a first-rate film showing up and doing its job. It's cathartic, and moving, without any of the usual obvious contrivances or manipulations. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy BurrJan 21, 2016
I emerged from the movie in a white-out haze of emotions, synapses overloaded, grateful beyond words to an actress who can convey so much with such subtlety of means. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJan 21, 2016
45 Years is a study in economy, in the beautiful symmetry of word and image and music. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayJan 21, 2016
Haigh knows how to thread a story in a way that makes it feel deliberate and spontaneous, so that when it reaches its climax, viewers feel that it’s both inevitable and utterly devastating. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaDec 23, 2015
If you prefer acting prowess over “Star Wars,” you won’t do better at year’s end than observing Rampling (she of the withering stare) and Courtenay (he of the soulful gaze), two stalwarts of that wonderful wave of British talent that hit our shores in the ‘60s, as they perform a finely calibrated pas de deux. Read full review
100
SlateDana StevensDec 23, 2015
45 Years is about the relationship of the present to the past and of our past loves to our present lives—a relationship that, like any good marriage, remains a total mystery. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranDec 22, 2015
45 Years is a quietly explosive film, a potent drama with a nuanced feel for subtlety and emotional complications. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Dec 22, 2015
A small film of big insights, heavy on dialogue but light on speeches, 45 Years often seems closer in spirit to a ghost story: Nothing goes “boo” or rearranges the furniture, but there’s a unmissable sense that we’re watching two people haunted by a specter from another lifetime. Read full review
100
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonDec 22, 2015
With 45 Years, [Haigh] has created not only a searching examination of a long-term marriage — and the myths that sustain it — but also a compassionate portrait of a woman reconciling herself with those false notions. Read full review
100
Slant MagazineMatt BrennanDec 10, 2015
It's the summative effect of the story's modest exchanges, unspooling one after another in long, tranquil shots, that lends the film its profound sense of loss. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 5, 2015
It could be the finest hour for both of its lead actors. Read full review
100
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 5, 2015
This story is about whether secrets can be survived, whether the knowing or not knowing is more injurious. Haigh’s very fine, classically modulated film keeps these questions alive until literally its last shot, and lets them jangle their way through you for days afterwards. Read full review
100
Time Out LondonDave CalhounMay 5, 2015
It’s a film of small moments and tiny gestures that leaves a very, very big impression. Read full review
100
The PlaylistJessica KiangFeb 19, 2015
A movie so simple, so elegant, and yet so devouringly empathetic that you might not notice its full magic until a few hours later. Read full review
91
Consequence of SoundSarah KurchakJan 21, 2016
The execution of this story is almost uniformly perfect. Haigh’s script and direction are a clinic in careful and measured storytelling, favoring a delicate and devastating slow burn of a narrative over big dramatic moments and outbursts. Read full review
91
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJan 2, 2016
If 45 Days is a tragedy, it’s a tragedy without a summation. Despite the ineffably moving speech Geoff delivers to the assemblage at the anniversary party, perhaps the finest piece of acting in Courtenay’s long career, it is not at all clear where these people are headed, or what shoals await. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattDec 17, 2015
Courtenay is a gruff and gratifyingly knotty presence, but in the end it’s Rampling’s movie. In a quiet, beautifully calibrated performance completely stripped of actressy tricks, she’s a revelation. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnMay 5, 2015
Anchored by a sensational Charlotte Rampling as its lead, the movie combines Haigh's perceptive style with shades of Mike Leigh's "Another Year" to create a quietly moving and deceptively tragic look at aging romance haunted by past mysteries. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJan 21, 2016
Brilliant performances from Tom Courtenay and especially Charlotte Rampling make the proceedings all the more genuine, as they bring to piercing life the relationship of two people who maybe don't know as much about each other as they once believed. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJan 2, 2016
The movie has momentously disturbing ideas but a fine grain, its images suitable for framing — or hiding away in the attic. Read full review
90
TimeStephanie ZacharekDec 24, 2015
The devastating truth of 45 Years, so beautifully wrought, is that even the most devoted couples are made up of two people who are essentially alone. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 22, 2015
[A] sensitive and devastating portrait of a long, happy marriage in sudden crisis. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 17, 2015
Less is not only more in 45 Years, Andrew Haigh’s study of marriage and memory, it is eloquently and anguishingly more, and what’s unspoken is almost deafening. Read full review
90
Screen DailyMark AdamsMay 5, 2015
Beautifully observed, gently amusing and often performed with emphasis on the small things in life rather than any major dramatic incident, its focus on retrospective jealousy is an unusual and intriguing one…and offers an absorbing story that comes up with some gently profound truths. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonJan 28, 2016
Daringly unsentimental, 45 Years makes a persuasive case that marriage demands not only patience, but guts. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJan 21, 2016
The movie is filled with small, loaded moments that resonate like gunshots in an echo chamber. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversJan 7, 2016
A mesmerizer that will creep into your dreams whether you let it or not. Read full review
88
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeDec 22, 2015
At some point in her 50-year career, Rampling became one of the world’s great actresses. Driven by her and Courtenay’s work, and by director Andrew Haigh’s limpid style, the film is devastating. Read full review
85
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeDec 28, 2015
Most essential to telling this story are Rampling and Courtenay, both of whom convey pages and pages of backstory and emotion with the most fleeting of glances. Read full review
80
EmpireStaff (Not credited)Aug 24, 2015
Full of restraint, from both its director and leads, this is a quiet gem with the power to move. Read full review
80
VarietyCharles GantFeb 10, 2015
Above all, 45 Years is a drama of quiet restraint. Read full review
80
CineVueLucy PopescuFeb 10, 2015
Haigh's latest is an impressive study of a couple haunted by their past. and a potent reminder both of the fragility of love and the need to keep communication open at all times. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJan 28, 2016
Rampling carries the film, appearing in virtually every scene. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonFeb 10, 2015
Do not expect blazing emotional fireworks, just finely calibrated performances and deep reserves of inner torment. Read full review
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