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(1 - 33) of 33 OFCS Rating: 82% Fresh Page   1   "The cast expertly incarnates this family haunted by loss, lovelessness and (literal) bad blood, but the film's unduly protracted duration makes the Vuillards feel like Christmas guests who just will not leave."   Little White Lies   Anton Bitel 3/4 "A gift that keeps on giving"   Film Freak Central   Bill Chambers "...plays at times like The Royal Tenenbaums without the twee affectations but nearly all the humor."   PopMatters   Chris Barsanti 4.5/5 "a work of intoxicating genius."   Filmcritic.com   Chris Cabin B+ "There are no martyrs in this anti-sentimental ironic movie that nevertheless percolates with emotion and accepts its quirky characters for all of their flaws."   ColeSmithey.com   Cole Smithey 4.5/5 "If you want to see a Christmas story that's genuinely heartwarming and entertaining without ever slipping into phony sentimentality, you'd better learn to read subtitles."   eFilmCritic.com   Dan Lybarger 2/4 "...ultimately suffers from a middling midsection that's been suffused with pointless digressions and melodramatic crises..."   Reel Film Reviews   David Nusair A- "Seems hardly like cheerful holiday fare but nevertheless goes down as richly as plum pudding."   Ozus' World Movie Reviews   Dennis Schwartz "'A Christmas Tale' finds time for bits that have no reason but strike home as true."   ReelTalk Movie Reviews   Donald J. Levit 3/4 "A Christmas Tale is beautifully acted by all. The bigger dramatic moments in the film are believable, but the occasional fights and arguments cannot hold a candle to the quieter moments of truth permeating out of the scenes."   DustinPutman.com   Dustin Putman 3/5 "Un drama coral y familiar sobre relaciones disfuncionales, viejos rencores, odios y amores, enfermedad y muerte. Puede resultar tan desconcertante e irritante como sorprendente y humana. Lo innegable es la calidad de su elenco."   Uruguay Total   Enrique Buchichio 3/4 "Arnaud Desplechin doesn't so much direct movies as conduct marathons."   Slant Magazine   Fernando F. Croce 4/5 "A dysfunctional French family learning that `it is never too late to bring love, peace and healing into a divisive and unforgiving household."   Spirituality and Practice   Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat 3/5 "[Director Desplechin] has a knack with actors, and for up-close, liberated filmmaking, but he has little sense of how to fit the pieces together."   The L Magazine   Henry Stewart 3/4 "A Christmas Tale is long but it exerts enough of a pull that the 150 minutes pass rapidly, if not necessarily painlessly."   ReelViews   James Berardinelli 2/4 "an endlessly busy and stylish film with a hollow emotional and spiritual core."   Cinema Writer   Jay Antani 8/10 "Arnaud Desplechin's headfirst dive into the complex relationships within a middle class French family is a messy, captivating, and very much living affair."   Window to the Movies   Jeffrey Chen 76/100 "By frontloading the dramatic meat of the story, the film becomes less about shocking revelations or plot twists than the sometimes comic, sometimes serious dynamics of a family under extreme strain."   MovieMartyr.com   Jeremy Heilman 3.5/5 "The family's vulnerabilities and eccentricities burrow under the skin."   Film-Forward.com   Kent Turner "This could have been an emotionally wrenching film, but Desplechin keeps the tone light, infusing the drama with humor in the most unexpected places."   Cinematical   Kim Voynar A "...like a stocking stuffed by the most inventive and mischievous of gift givers."   Reeling Reviews   Laura Clifford "Each in succession, the curiosities of A Christmas Tale burst from the surface of the film, almost incapable of containing themselves, their passions, their disappointments, their awkward eruptions of alcoholic rage and familial resentment."   Not Coming to a Theater Near You   Leo Goldsmith 3/4 "Controlled chaos of a family reunion highlighed by likeable but flawed characters"   Movie Habit   Marty Mapes B+ "A Christmas Tale's expansive stew of physical and psychological illness, death, betrayal, longing, religion, and ritual ultimately proves invigoratingly lush."   Lessons of Darkness   Nick Schager 4/5 "Bustling and chaotic like most big families, this film really captures the outrageous collision of personalities in any gathering of relatives"   Shadows on the Wall   Rich Cline B "The characters are so nutty that you never know what they will do next. That fact alone kept me interested."   Laramie Movie Scope   Robert Roten 8/10 "A classic French family drama featuring fine performances by legend Catherine Deneuve and reigning star Mathieu Amalric even if the raging and crying might be a bit much for the Christmas season."   Monsters and Critics   Ron Wilkinson 3/5 "Till life do us part"   JWR   S. James Wegg "... pulses with human life in all its terrible and beautiful irrationality."   Parallax View   Sean Axmaker A "The most emotionally rich and cinematically thrilling film I've seen all year, a film that pulses with human life in all its terrible and beautiful irrationality."   Seattle Post-Intelligencer   Sean Axmaker 6/10 "Yet another dysfunctional-family, holiday-reunion film that's no better, no worse than its bourgeois predecessors - unless you happen to be a Francophile."   SSG Syndicate   Susan Granger 9/10 "A picture of unpleasant people treating each other poorly that comes across as buoyant and frankly joyful at times."   Antagony & Ecstasy   Tim Brayton "Click here to see review"   Wolf Entertainment Guide   William Wolf  (1 - 33) of 33 OFCS Rating: 82% Fresh Page   1