A Hidden Life

"Those who are worried that this may be typical Malick-ian whimsy – a quilt of images and sound sewn together with wispy voice-over – can rest assured that the narrative is alive and well, and serves to propel the gently engrossing story towards its devastatingly factual conclusion."

"As nearly always with Malick, I adored it. While still wondering what audiences he might reach and how much more accessible – never a sin – he might be if he curbed the privilege his undoubted seniority and status lends him and aimed to make a two-hour film or less, as he once did."

"...terribly long and demands a lot from the audience..."

"Malick has always been a grandly Romantic artist, in the sense of Romanticism defined by the 19th-century critic Walter Pater: “the addition of strangeness to beauty”. By now, though, some of the strangeness has faded – and some of the beauty as well."

"It's an anachronistic parable for our Trumpian times, sympathetic to lives of moral fortitude lost in the white noise of history. A Hidden Life is a graceful and hauntingly beautiful symphony for the senses that is urgently pertinent. I loved it."

"The ending has real power, too, but much of the rest of the film is just plain dull - gorgeous to look at, but dull."

"Unfortunately, instead of embracing the weighty moral, religious and political components of the story, Malick has alternately deflected and minimized them."

"It is admirably serious but static."

"Diehl and Pachner are both terrific, mastering Malick’s improvisational style and bringing earthy authenticity to its playful family moments."

"Feels stunningly relevant as it thrusts this problem into the light."

"A lucid and profoundly defiant portrait of faith in crisis."

"A sombre spiritual war epic which surges up to claim its place among the director’s most deeply felt, sturdily hewn achievements."