Valley of Love - Movie Reviews (2024)

The movie builds to a surprisingly straightforward jab at the emotional solar plexus, which worked for me.

Full Review | Jan 18, 2023

Valley of Love is a double treat.

Full Review | Aug 22, 2022

It tries to create a somewhat ghostly atmosphere that ends up not delving into the subject of loss and its confrontation. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | May 14, 2020

Huppert does an expectedly great job, weaving through different emotional states while keeping Isabelle grounded as a character, but the real surprise here is Depardieu.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.5/10 | May 22, 2019

The joy of the film is watching Huppert and Depardieu together, two great actors who extract every nuance from the shifts in their uncertain relationship.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 19, 2019

The plot enters like a blender in which guilt, metaphysical and pain intermingle... [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Dec 5, 2017

French screen icons Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu are such a charismatic pair you could watch them doing nothing and still find them compelling.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 9, 2017

Yet this memorial movie touches on spiritual awareness, a miracle achieved through its superb stars.

Full Review | Mar 3, 2017

For all its undoubted curiosity value, this Valley runs dry too quickly.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 1, 2017

It is Depardieu, as a mass of a man facing his own mortality, who anchors the film, baring his huge belly for the camera even when he's not in the vicinity of the motel pool -- he's quite clearly (and quite poignantly) a man lost inside his own body.

Full Review | Nov 29, 2016

It plays out like a Gallic version of The Trip, the sitcom starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, but with fewer gags.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 10, 2016

When you bring together two giants of French cinema, you expect to at least get some A-grade acting. And thankfully, neither Depardieu nor Huppert disappoint.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 3, 2016

Between drama and supernatural slips in the plot, Nicloux manages to offer a balanced, but not outstanding, film. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Sep 13, 2016

Valley of Love is a rather effective mood-piece, albeit with some overcooked attempts to pad out the dramatic space.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 15, 2016

The film is a meditation on grief, celebrity, marriage and parenthood, but while it offers incidental pleasures and insights, it doesn't have the emotional force of something like 45 Years, to which it bears a passing resemblance.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 14, 2016

Probably too enigmatic for all tastes, the film's very distinctive approach, aligned to mesmerising work from the co-stars, still makes it worth a look - not least to marvel at Depardieu's sheer lack of vanity given his increasingly Falstaffian frame.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 14, 2016

An offbeat supernatural drama with echoes of British classic Don't Look Now.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 14, 2016

The colour palette of bleached bone whites and brilliant blues, and the haunting music of Charles Ives add to the odd, mesmerising atmosphere.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 14, 2016

Guillaume Nicloux's drama Valley of Love is no masterpiece, but worth watching for anyone with an interest in high-quality screen acting.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 12, 2016

There's considerable pleasure nonetheless in watching its two leads - supporting cameo appearances can be counted on the fingers of one hand - at work. Depardieu in particular is as organic here as he's been for a long time, absolutely in his skin.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 12, 2016