Critic Reviews
77
Metascore
Generally Favorable
positive
18(90%)
mixed
2(10%)
negative
0(0%)
Showing 20 Critic Reviews
100
The Best Intentions is the most moving film I’ve seen this year.
100
Warmer and more forgiving than Bergman's own work, it is one of the most moving films ever made about the exacting, full-time job of living with another person.[31 Jul 1992, p.17]
90
Realized beautifully by director Bille August, Intentions is a moving, profound requiem to all human relationships.
88
Never mind that Best Intentions, which was filmed both as a six-part TV miniseries and a three-hour movie, is occasionally uneven and sometimes confusing. It remains a rare August pleasure, a film for grown-up audiences that challenges and enriches.
88
August's direction, as usual, is a tad glacial, but at its frequent best, the film soars to explosive heights. [31 Jul 1992, p.6D]
88
Not only does The Best Intentions work, it works so well that its emotions are hard to shake off. Here's an epic that pulls no punches in depicting the crushing, unresolvable conflict that frequently defines marriage more than hugs and kisses. Here's that rare soap opera with more hard lather than soft suds. [14 Aug 1992, p.42]
88
Despite the melancholy background of Scandinavia, the repressive work ethic, the class struggle, this is a beautiful love story. [14 Aug 1992, p.3G]
80
A deeply satisfying film, THE BEST INTENTIONS, honored with the prestigious Palm d'Or at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, uses its considerable length to examine the early relationship of Bergman's parents with uncompromising thoroughness.
80
An epic story of mismatched love shaped in the most intimate terms, the Ingmar Bergman-scripted The Best Intentions packs a sustained emotional wallop that lightens its three-hour span.
80
The Danish director, whose film Pelle the Conqueror won the best foreign-language film Oscar, has turned out a thoughtful and accomplished piece of filmmaking, skillfully acted and beautifully put together with a kind of discreet elegance that the biggest budget (roughly $10 million) in Swedish film history made possible.
