Virtuosic, assured, and possessed of undeniable aesthetic force, it’s also hard not to turn away from.
Comment
02/22/08
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2008)
96
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:127
Fresh:122
Rotten:5
Average Rating:8.3/10
Consensus: Featuring gut-wrenching performances from Anamaria Marinca and Laura Vasiliu, 4 Months is a gripping portrayal of life in Communist Romania.
Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
US Box Office: $875,257
Synopsis: NEW YORK PREMIERE AT NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL 2007 (Limited) On the heels of Cristi Puiu’s brilliant THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU comes another outstanding picture, 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS,... [More]
Reviews for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Proceeding with a blunt and sometimes brutal relentlessness, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days impresses and engrosses as a work of stark, spare naturalism.
02/15/08
Observes with ruthless, artful precision. While plunging a knife through your soul.
02/15/08
The film emerges as a devastating personal drama, a suspenseful horror story and a powerful statement about life under a repressive regime.
02/08/08
It's daring, challenging, and hard to take, but it's a story that should be told and very few filmmakers could have possibly told it this well.
02/08/08
It is a feat in filmmaking from a young director wise beyond his years.
02/08/08
'4 Months' proves once again that compelling filmmaking doesn't necessarily have to entail big spending.
02/08/08
A powerful film and a stark visual accomplishment.
02/08/08
Top CriticWriter-director Christian Mungiu has made the choice to let the material play out in a calm and even-handed manner in the hopes that the despair and barely-contained anger that he is trying to convey will come through without having to underline them.
02/07/08
... a grueling and deeply affecting human drama.
02/07/08
This is a beautiful film about ugly circumstances, set in 1987 near the end of the Ceausescu era in communist Romania.
02/07/08
The absolute clarity of the storytelling, the aching authenticity of the performances make for a film that will stay with you for at least as long as the period alluded to in its title. It might stay with you forever.
02/07/08
Not a film that's easy to watch, but it is one of remarkable power...a searing indictment of a society gone wrong as well as a harrowing personal story.
02/07/08
A grinding, expertly crafted slice of Eastern European miserablism... an unquestionably overpowering experience that nonetheless left this reviewer with a nagging sense of unease.
02/06/08
Utilizes its draconian politics to underscore the desperate determination and nerve-racking fear of stepping outside the box.
02/04/08
There's fascination in these still little dramas that feel more like voyeurism than cinema.
02/03/08
Although the film takes place over two days, writer/director Cristian Mungiu keeps us so close to every mundane moment that he conveys the sense that he's shot in real time.
02/01/08
It may seem perverse to contend that a movie with such a harrowing subject is nevertheless revivifying. But the New Wave of Romanian cinema is the most exciting in the world right now. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days is its latest masterpiece.
02/01/08
Writer-director Cristian Mungiu confirms the Romanian cinema renaissance while creating a paradoxical marvel: a bleak tale of illegal abortion that powerfully affirms one's faith in people.
02/01/08
First, this movie should be enjoyed. Later, marveled at. And then, once the excitement has faded, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days really should be studied, because director Cristian Mungiu creates scenes unlike any ever filmed.
02/01/08
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