Critic Reviews

This is a film about the ordinariness of love.

Barnard once again proves herself the bard of the British working class. In Ali & Ava, she abandons her occasionally bleak realism for a kind of stubborn hopefulness, letting the delight of unexpected connection break through the storm clouds.

Barnard smoothly dovetails the lighter moments with the dark and makes sure to not skirt the traumatic moments in Ali and Ava’s marriages. Akhtar and Rushbrook handle these intense character revelations like pros, never feeling the need to veer into melodrama.

Ali & Ava once again showcases Clio Barnard’s uncanny ability to capture the insoluble complexities of life.

Ali & Ava is a gentle, emotionally-charged drama that doesn’t placate the viewer with unrealistic ideas about love.

Despite Ali & Ava proving a heartwarmingly funny and rich love story, its strength truly lies in the characters’ melancholic confrontation with their underlying pain.

A compassionate and tenderly performed love story, with a musical current coursing through it. British cinema is lucky to have Clio Barnard.

With Ali & Ava, Barnard triumphs in presenting a romance tale that is deeply grounded, yet in its well-matched leads and heartfelt story, still possesses the magic required to sweep the audience off its feet.

Akhtar, an actor who was so impressive in Four Lions and Utopia, and Claire Rushbrook, recently seen as Enola Holmes’s housekeeper, make for a quietly magnetic couple. For all the obstacles they face, this remains a strangely joyful film.

Ali & Ava is a vibrant work that uses the transcendent power of song to turn a streetwise tale into a diegetic musical, with genuinely surprising results.