"It is most remarkable not because of its epic scope, but because of the startling intimacy it achieves despite that breadth." -- Jeremy Heilman, MOVIEMARTYR.COM   "For all the time we spend with these people, we never really get inside of them." -- Andy Klein, NEW TIMES   "overburdened with complicated plotting and banal dialogue" -- Arthur Lazere, CULTUREVULTURE.NET   "Rich in detail, gorgeously shot and beautifully acted, Les Destinees is, in its quiet, epic way, daring, inventive and refreshingly unusual." -- Kim Morgan, OREGONIAN   "It's definitely a step in the right direction." -- David Parkinson, EMPIRE MAGAZINE [UK]   "Assayas's modern approach to historic material breathes some life back into the period drama." -- Chuck Rudolph, MATINEE MAGAZINE   "It gets the details of its time frame right but it completely misses its emotions." -- Shlomo Schwartzberg, BOXOFFICE MAGAZINE   "Gorgeous to look at but insufferably tedious and turgid...a curiously constricted epic." -- Frank Swietek, ONE GUY'S OPINION   Click to read the article. -- FILM THREAT --  Click to read the article. -- Mike D'Angelo, MAN WHO VIEWED TOO MUCH

Hot Pick   "One of those decades-spanning historical epics that strives to be intimate and socially encompassing but fails to do justice to either effort in three hours of screen time." -- Bob Strauss, LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS

Cream of the Crop ROTTEN 56% Avg. Rating: 6.5/10   "Watching Les Destinées, whose pace may not be for everyone, is to be virtually part of the creative process." -- John Anderson, NEWSDAY   "It will not appeal to the impatient, but those who like long books and movies will admire the way it accumulates power and depth." -- Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES   "It's a shame that the storyline and its underlying themes ... finally seem so impersonal or even shallow." -- Jonathan Foreman, NEW YORK POST   "The movie turns out to be [Assayas'] homage to the Gallic 'tradition of quality,' in all its fusty squareness." -- Owen Gleiberman, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY   "An impressively coordinated enterprise that lasts three hours, manages a large cast, and covers a period of 30-odd years while successfully unfolding as a series of scenes from the life of a single character." -- J. Hoberman, VILLAGE VOICE   "With exquisite craftsmanship ... Olivier Assayas has fashioned an absorbing look at provincial bourgeois French society." -- Kirk Honeycutt, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER   "It's so crammed with scenes and vistas and pretty moments that it's left a few crucial things out, like character development and coherence." -- Ann Hornaday, WASHINGTON POST   "No number of fantastic sets, extras, costumes and spectacular locales can disguise the emptiness at the center of the story." -- Desson Howe, WASHINGTON POST   "The movie suffers from two fatal ailments -- a dearth of vitality and a story that's shapeless and uninflected." -- Mick LaSalle, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE   "Opens at a funeral, ends on the protagonist's death bed and doesn't get much livelier in the three hours in between." -- John Monaghan, DETROIT FREE PRESS ( More... )

--  Click to read the article.
-- Elbert Ventura, POPMATTERS