74
Metascore
16 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottThat the film manages to be understated, calm and intelligent in spite of its wrenching subject matter is perhaps its most impressive accomplishment. In avoiding sensationalism, it feels very close to the truth.
- 100Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranIt's intelligent, provocative and intensely dramatic. Its subject matter may be tough but it is as powerfully authentic as anyone could want.
- 90SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirA distinctive achievement, a World War II movie unlike any other and one of the few films ever to address a topic that makes almost everyone want to look away: What happens to women in wartime.
- 80Village VoiceVillage VoiceOne of the best of a new breed of indigenous movies prying open the Pandora's box of German suffering in World War II, A Woman in Berlin takes on the mass rape of German women by victorious Russian soldiers entering the country in 1945.
- 75New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoA Woman in Berlin, which is based on an anonymously written memoir of the same name, serves also as a testimony to women who put men in their place.
- 70NPRMark JenkinsNPRMark JenkinsA Woman in Berlin doesn't justify retribution, but in such moments it does clarify the horrible logic of vengeance.
- 60Chicago ReaderAndrea GronvallChicago ReaderAndrea GronvallDirector Max Farberbock (Aimee & Jaguar) mainly avoids graphic depictions of sexual assault, but that only increases the tension in this austere, claustrophobic drama.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterThe Hollywood ReporterThe film ends up relying on stating a basic situation over and over rather than developing any sort of dramatic story concerning recognizable human beings, at least until things get moving a little faster in its second hour.
- 50VarietyEddie CockrellVarietyEddie CockrellA stately, intermittently gripping, ultimately overlong drama.
- 40New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNew York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanUnfortunately, Färberböck never gives us reason enough to sit through such unremitting punishment. Though the story is based in truth, an emotionally removed Hoss feels more like a symbol than an actual person, while her detached narration keeps us at further remove.