82
Metascore
30 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90The New YorkerDavid DenbyThe New YorkerDavid DenbyA sombrely beautiful dream of the violent Irish past. Refusing the standard flourishes of Irish wildness or lyricism, Loach has made a film for our moment, a time of bewildering internecine warfare.
- 90The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottThe history presented in The Wind That Shakes the Barley hardly feels like a closed book or a museum display. It is as alive and as troubling as anything on the evening news, though far more thoughtful and beautiful.
- 88New York Daily NewsJack MathewsNew York Daily NewsJack MathewsBeautifully shot, both in darkened homes and on the misty green Irish landscape by Loach's frequent cinematographer Barry Aykroyd, "Wind" has a you-are-there intensity and intimacy about it that make it nearly overwhelming. But for all its violence and subsequent sadness, it's a movie of extraordinary importance.
- 80Village VoiceVillage VoiceLike Jean-Pierre Melville's recently rediscovered "Army of Shadows," The Wind That Shakes the Barley possesses the soul of an anti-war movie and the style of a thriller.
- 75Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanIf Loach had given full voice to each side of this division, he could have made a great film -- maybe THE great film -- about the Irish struggle.
- 75The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThere's a kind of dry tastefulness about The Wind That Shakes The Barley's historical recreations, even when Loach is staging rapes and executions.
- 75Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerChristian Science MonitorPeter RainerIntermittently gripping, but overlong.
- 75PremiereGlenn KennyPremiereGlenn KennyIt's a film that approaches greatness and then fumbles.
- 60VarietyDerek ElleyVarietyDerek ElleyThough tastily lensed and with a convincing cast led by Cillian Murphy, essentially small-scale picture lacks the involving sweep of Loach's earlier historical-political yarn, "Land and Freedom."
- 50The Hollywood ReporterRay BennettThe Hollywood ReporterRay BennettAtmospheric but pedestrian, it is a retelling of the classic tragedy of all civil wars, from the U.S. to Vietnam to England, where brother is pitched against brother.