--- title: "La Chimera: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/la-chimera/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/la-chimera" critics_score: 82 critics_reviews: 22 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # La Chimera (2023): what the critics said Critics' score 82 from 22 reviews: 20 positive, 1 mixed, 1 negative. The reviews for La Chimera are warm and closely bunched, with nearly every critic landing somewhere between good and very good. Praise clusters first on Josh O’Connor, whose still, sad-eyed turn as the grieving English tomb-raider is widely called the film’s anchor, and second on Alice Rohrwacher’s mixing of earthy naturalism with folk-tale fantasy. Several critics pick out the light in the Tuscan exteriors, the shifting aspect ratios and the way past and present are folded into one stream; a few name the ending as the film’s high point. The comedy sits easily alongside the melancholy for most. Reservations are scarce and mostly minor: that it rambles, that some whimsical touches sit oddly. The dissent is small but real. Paste finds it so fanciful it dulls rather than moves, and Eye for Film thinks it never settles into a shape and runs long for what it delivers. Otherwise the consensus is a settled admiration. ## Radio Times — Max Copeman Rating 5/5. The critic calls it an eccentric and beguiling drama. They single out O’Connor’s sensational performance as the sad-eyed Brit and the deft balance of comedy and melancholy. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-w8zg0w/la-chimera/) ## Sight and Sound Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 1 June 2023. Festival review. The critic calls it a joyous, masterful work of folk magic. They single out the transcendent sequence revealing an ancient shrine buried incongruously near a power plant. [Read the review](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/la-chimera-joyous-masterful-work-folk-magic) ## The New Yorker — Justin Chang Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 28 March 2024. Rohrwacher’s moody and marvellous fourth feature explores a tomb raider’s grief and the moral costs of disturbing the dead through mythic resonance and time-blending storytelling. The critic singles out the sublime ending and the film’s hopeful message about bridging past and present for particular praise. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-current-cinema/the-enchanting-archaeological-romance-of-la-chimera) ## Slant Magazine — Jake Cole Rating 3.5/4. 8 September 2023. Rohrwacher’s wistful parable examines ghosts, time and the ownership of the past through a surly British archaeologist turned tomb-raider. The rueful, melancholic film channels neorealist and Straub-Huillet echoes while balancing satire with a profound sense of historical transience. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/la-chimera-review-josh-oconnor-alice-rohrwacher/) ## Empire — Laura Venning Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 10 May 2024. The review describes the film as an exquisitely crafted, playful and bewitching contemporary folk tale that melds mischief, myth and melancholy with tactile, wonder-infused imagery. It singles out the director’s distinctive magic and the lead performance for making the story feel alive and emotionally resonant. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/la-chimera/) ## Los Angeles Times — Carlos Aguilar Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 29 March 2024. Rohrwacher crafts a sun-dappled Italian fable of incandescent beauty about loss, time, and the significance of ancient relics beyond their market value. The critic highlights the film’s exquisite blurring of the tangible and ethereal, along with its playful yet soulful perspective on mortality and legacy. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2024-03-29/la-chimera-review-alice-rohrwacher-josh-oconnor-isabella-rossellini) ## RogerEbert.com — Christy Lemire Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 29 March 2024. Rohrwacher delivers a dreamy, magical-realist take on a heist story about tomb raiders in 1980s Italy, with Josh O’Connor’s haunted performance anchoring the film’s blend of whimsy and melancholy. The critic singles out the director’s spellbinding use of light, overlapping dialogue, and shifting aspect ratios for praise while noting some quirky elements feel out of place. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/la-chimera-film-review-2024) ## IndieWire — David Ehrlich Rating B+. 26 May 2023. Festival review. Rohrwacher’s third film in her informal trilogy is the most romantic, following a grieving English tomb-raider whose supernatural gift leads him through Italy’s past and present. It is playful, textured and the best Indiana Jones movie of the year. [Read the review](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/la-chimera-review-josh-oconnor-alice-rohrwacher-1234867982/) ## The AV Club — Matt Schimkowitz Rating B+. 27 March 2024. Rohrwacher’s magical-realist treasure hunt is a funny, deeply satisfying meditation on loss and hope set among Italy’s ruins. O’Connor’s still, silent performance anchors the film’s enchanting, surprising formal delights and exploration of the past belonging to everyone and no one. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/la-chimera-movie-review-1851330073) ## Financial Times — Danny Leigh Rating 4/5. The film has everything one would want in an Italian picture, blending visual beauty, comedy and a darker melancholy plot about grave-robbers seeking Etruscan treasure. [Read the review](https://www.ft.com/content/26384473-6c5d-46c4-b7d2-eec8eca599cc) ## Little White Lies — Esmé Holden Rating 4/4/5. 9 May 2024. The critic finds it expansive and shows new ways a movie can be. They single out the destabilising, intuitive style with visual ideas seldom repeated. [Read the review](https://lwlies.com/reviews/la-chimera) ## The i Paper — Francesca Steele Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 10 May 2024. The critic finds the film a surreal yet accessible blend of magical realism and neo-realism that showcases Josh O’Connor as a leading man with crafty, mesmeric energy in the role of a melancholy grave-robbing archaeologist. Rohrwacher is praised for her genre-shifting style and the film’s intriguingly open-ended exploration of history, grief and identity. [Read the review](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/la-chimera-josh-o-connor-review-3046907) ## Vulture — Bilge Ebiri Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 29 March 2024. The lovely, mysterious film follows a sad-eyed Josh O’Connor as a reluctant grave-robber seeking a passage to the afterlife amid a merry band of tombaroli. Rohrwacher mixes earthy naturalism with playful, ramshackle fantasy in a rich, allusive work rich with Italian cinematic echoes. [Read the review](https://www.vulture.com/article/la-chimera-review-josh-oconnor-seeks-the-afterlife.html) ## Screen Daily Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 26 May 2023. Festival review. The critic describes it as a strange, messy, resonant film that is part dreamscape, part modern folk tale. They single out its ode to the fragility of beautiful things and cautionary tale about how easily they can be lost. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/la-chimera-cannes-review/5181899.article) ## Film Comment — Devika Girish The critic praises Rohrwacher's fable-like exploration of tomb-robbers in 1980s Italy as a meditation on capitalism's profaning of the sacred and exploitation of the poor. She highlights the film's fluid sense of time and the contrast between the grave-robbers' playful defiance and the shadowy world of wealthy collectors. [Read the review](https://www.filmcomment.com/can-you-dig-it-alice-rohrwacher-la-chimera/) ## The Guardian — Wendy Ide 12 May 2024. Rohrwacher’s film is an extraordinary, beguiling tale of a renegade archaeologist leading a band of tomb-raiders in 1980s Tuscany, with Josh O’Connor giving one of his finest performances as a man torn between past and present. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/may/12/la-chimera-review-josh-oconnor-dazzles-in-brilliant-tale-of-italian-tomb-raiders) ## The Hollywood Reporter — David Rooney 26 May 2023. Festival review. The film is a uniquely magical, lyrically strange blend of folklore, dreams and realism following a band of Etruscan tomb-raiders. Josh O’Connor delivers a superb, haunted performance as the melancholy Englishman searching for a lost love and a portal to the afterlife. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/la-chimera-review-josh-oconnor-alice-rohrwacher-1235501816/) ## The New York Times — Manohla Dargis Rating Critic’s Pick. 28 March 2024. Alice Rohrwacher’s latest is a dreamy, enchanting film following a tomb raider pining for lost love, filled with magic and a bright red thread that beguiles the viewer. The critic praises its approachable yet elliptical style and Rohrwacher’s singular voice among contemporary filmmakers. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/28/movies/la-chimera-review-alice-rohrwacher.html) ## The Telegraph 9 May 2024. Festival review. Rohrwacher’s ethereally beguiling film follows a grief-stricken Englishman turned grave-robber on a transfixing voyage into the underworld, meditating on honouring the past and the sacred. [Read the review](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/la-chimera-cannes-review-josh-oconnor/) ## The Times 9 May 2024. Josh O’Connor is compelling as a moody archaeologist sniffing out stolen treasures in a stylish drama set in 1980s Italy. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/la-chimera-film-review-josh-oconnor-wftgjv3lt) ## Time Out — Sophie Monks Kaufman Rating 4 out of 5 stars. 26 May 2023. Festival review. The critic says Josh O’Connor steals the show in this giddy magical realist carnivalesque. They single out the hybrid beast merging the earthly with the ethereal and O’Connor’s sublime performance. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/la-chimera-2023) ## Digital Spy — Mireia Mullor Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 10 May 2024. The critic calls it a spellbinding masterpiece and one of the best films of 2024, praising its Fellini-esque daydream quality blending past and present, living and dead. She singles out the lively portrayal of the grave-robbers and Carol Duarte's Italia as the emotional heart amid themes of grief, survival, and collective reclamation. [Read the review](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a60728929/la-chimera-review-josh-oconnor/) ## The Playlist — Farah Cheded Rating A-. 27 May 2023. Festival review. The critic praises the film as an enchanting modern myth that uses magical realist touches to comment on greed and history, with a beguiling power that transforms the viewer's perspective. She singles out Rohrwacher's ability to tap into uncorrupted innocence and the spell it casts. [Read the review](https://theplaylist.net/la-chimera-is-another-enchanting-modern-myth-from-alice-rohrwacher-cannes-20230527/) ## The Wrap Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 26 May 2023. Festival review. The critic hails the film as one of the best in Cannes competition, a stunning and lyrical pastoral parable that contemplates time, existence and the afterlife through its whimsical folk-tale approach to grave-robbing and history. They single out the tender cinematography and the film’s philosophical depth on the unknowability of time. [Read the review](https://www.thewrap.com/la-chimera-review-alice-rohrwacher/) ## Deadline — Pete Hammond Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 26 May 2023. Festival review. The critic calls Alice Rohrwacher’s film her best yet and one of the strongest in competition, praising it as a splendid, mysterious blend of adventure, heist, love story and spiritual journey. They single out Josh O’Connor’s brilliant lead performance (delivered entirely in Italian) and the director’s fresh take on themes of the past. [Read the review](https://deadline.com/2023/05/la-chimera-review-josh-oconnor-alice-rohrwacher-cannes-film-festival-1235378061/) ## Collider — Chase Hutchinson Rating 8/10. 28 March 2024. The critic calls it an absolute treasure of a movie that is quietly spellbinding and one of the most interesting films of the year. They single out its subtly explosive finale that combines flashes of painful past and path forward. [Read the review](https://collider.com/la-chimera-review/) ## The Skinny — Carmen Paddock Rating 4/5. 5 March 2024. The critic finds it an ethereal meditation on personal histories and collective belonging, commending Josh O'Connor's masterful, heartbreaking performance balancing kindness, curiosity, and volatile grief. She highlights the hazy, sun-drenched cinematography and inventive techniques that fold multiple timelines into one stream. [Read the review](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/la-chimera-alice-rohrwacher) ## Paste — Brianna Zigler Rating 5.8/10. 27 March 2024. The critic finds it a sweet but overly fanciful tale of life, love, and death that is beautifully crafted and gorgeous to look at. They single out its playful camerawork but note it lulls the viewer into emotional sedation. [Read the review](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/alice-rohrwacher/la-chimera-review) ## Eye for Film — Jennie Kermode Fi1m's normalised score 35/100 (inferred from the text). 2 March 2024. Festival review. The critic finds the film a hybrid of forms and themes that never quite succeeds or finds a solid identity, describing it as rambling and narratively unsatisfying despite visual strengths and good ideas. She singles out a moving moment of aesthetic awe as insufficient to justify the length. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/la-chimera-2023-film-review-by-jennie-kermode) ## Film Stories — Maria Lattila 10 May 2024. The critic calls Rohrwacher a master of blending supernatural elements with the mundane and praises the film's magical realism combined with everyday life. She singles out its profound effect on themes of loneliness and love after reflection. [Read the review](https://filmstories.co.uk/reviews/la-chimera-review-a-subtly-splendid-tale-of-grief-and-graverobbing/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/la-chimera.md