Critic Reviews

The mystery element and its resolution for Sukey and Elizabeth are not too complicated, psychologically or practically, and nor do they need to be. The real drama exists elsewhere, in bravely impressionistic form held together by superb writing, a complex but immaculate structure and Jackson’s mesmerising, heartbreaking (and funny – as when she cannot remember who the prime minister is but “I know I don’t like him”) performance at its heart.

In Elizabeth Is Missing, Jackson gave one of the performances of her lifetime. ... The drama achieved two important things: providing a truthful portrayal of the condition, and reminding people caring for those with dementia that they are not alone.

[Elizabeth Is Missing] poignantly conflates its protagonist’s fraying condition with a dual murder mystery—a marriage that transforms this sterling affair into a multifaceted portrait of loss.

Elizabeth Is Missing is yet another astonishing showcase for two-time Academy Award winner Glenda Jackson. ... The film is a frustrating work in that it details layers and layers of frustration on every front, but it’s also simple, beautiful, and effective.

[Elizabeth Is Missing] keeps one guessing throughout, although the experience is very much about the lead performance; it comes very close to too close for comfort for anyone who’s dealt with a person with Alzheimer’s. ... Ms. Jackson has always shown herself to be an exacting and gifted artist, but Maud Horsham is the kind of role that requires much more out of a performer than just actorly craft. And that, happily, is what we get.

It’s both emotionally challenging and entertaining, and it once again shows the range that has distinguished “Masterpiece” across the decades.

With equal parts sensitivity and suspense, "Elizabeth is Missing" displays an emotional range that is sometimes uncommon in crime by interweaving it with an intensely personal drama. The result is mesmerizing.

Elizabeth is Missing is a powerful and unsentimental portrait of psychological decline. Absence comes in many forms here, not least in the gradual fading out of Maud herself.

It didn't airbrush dementia. Maud was variously sweet, difficult and downright aggressive, her lovely, caring daughter, Helen (Helen Behan), bearing the brunt and the bruises. Jackson spared the viewer little, her grimacing face living every moment from incontinence to filling her cupboards with nothing but tinned peaches. The social issues were worn lightly.

Portraits of dementia often tend toward a reductive binary, that the lightbulb is off or it's on, but Jackson's take on Maud is much more complex. She's often the most "herself" when she's re-experiencing an event from her childhood and often the most in-the-moment when she's repeating a revelation she's already had multiple times. Every beat is heartbreakingly played. ... This is a tightly told story well worth checking out, even if you may need the mystery to pique your initial curiosity.