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Private Life

2018

Tamara Jenkins

Paul Giamatti, Kathryn Hahn, Kayli Carter, Molly Shannon ...

6.5

2,987

Drama Struggling to conceive, a couple in their 40s are almost out of options -- until a sliver of hope arrives in the form of their visiting step-niece.

	Media	Author	Review
		David Fear Rolling Stone	"There’s something incredibly gratifying about watching 'Private Life' (...) Welcome back, Ms. Jenkins. You’ve been much missed (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"
		A. O. Scott The New York Times	"Even as I often found myself wishing that everyone in it would take it easier on themselves (...) Though if they did, it wouldn’t really be life, and it wouldn’t be art either. The joy of this film is how completely it’s both."
		Mick LaSalle San Francisco Chronicle	"[It] shows considerable skill on the part of Jenkins, who creates the illusion that we're only incidentally watching a movie, that we're really just hanging out with some nice people and seeing how their lives work out."
		Owen Gleiberman Variety	"Paul Giamatti and Kathryn Hahn are captivating (...) The movie is touching and bittersweet"
		Michael O'Sullivan The Washington Post	"[It] earns its laughs, to be sure. But more important, it earns the tears of recognition that fall, gently and warmly, between the yuks (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"
		John DeFore The Hollywood Reporter	"Outstanding performances (...) They're such interesting people, and the person telling their story cares enough to make them real."
		Brian Tallerico rogerebert.com	"It features a pair of wonderfully believable performances (...) It’s especially frustrating because it’s easy to see where the film could be trimmed of some of this less-believable fat."
		Elizabeth Weitzman The Wrap	"It's about love, and pain, and marriage, and friendship, and family. And it's also about enduring, about picking yourself up over and over and over, in the eternal hope that something beautiful is waiting around the corner."
		Matt Zoller Seitz rogerebert.com	"This film is a reminder that the smallness of life can feel huge when we're in the middle of it (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"
		David Ehrlich IndieWire	"Paul Giamatti and Kathryn Hahn are brilliant (...) Richard and Rachel often question if they even have a marriage anymore (...) but it’s truly beautiful to watch them discover they do"
		Gregory Ellwood The Playlist	"There isn’t one bad performance in the film and it’s her most accomplished work cinematically to date (...) The same thematic point is frustratingly made again and again"
		David Edelstein Vulture	"Kathryn Hahn is dazzling (...) [Giamatti] is wonderful here — maybe better than he’s ever been"

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