Of Gods and Men (2010)

The critic highlights the film's quiet resonance and humanity, noting its exploration of faith through strong performances and its moving depiction of decency amid threat, predicting it will feature in year-end lists.

The film is a stunningly passionate and deeply moving modern tragedy that does not require shared belief to appreciate. It is singled out for praise for its overwhelming Last Supper sequence with the monks and Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

The critic praises the film as a mature, complex meditation on faith, courage and post-colonial issues, calling it commanding and immensely satisfying grown-up cinema with superb performances and a gripping yet low-key approach.

The review highlights the film's beauty and its rare success in dramatizing faith and interfaith harmony without sentimentality. It singles out the monks' debate on duty and a moving scene with Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake as they face their fate.

The critic praises the film as a beautiful, somber and rigorously intelligent drama based on the true story of Trappist monks in 1990s Algeria. It singles out the film's historical authenticity and its focus on spiritual and temporal concerns amid violence.

The review describes the film as a consummate, transfixing meditation on religious conviction and post-colonial strife. It singles out the performances, especially by Lambert Wilson and Michael Lonsdale, and the atmospheric depiction of monastic life.

The critic calls the film a thrilling adventure of the spirit that trusts rigor and restraint. It singles out the complex moral decisions faced by the monks and the standout performances, especially Lambert Wilson as the prior.

The review commends Beauvois for maturing into a masterly director with tight control, balancing theological and political dimensions in a thoughtful, non-sensationalist portrayal of monastic life and religious vocation amid violence. It singles out the restrained, life-affirming approach and the cast's subtle performances, especially in building the rhythms of the monks' routines.

Beauvois’s film is a morally committed work that comes down on the side of progressivism and Christian humanism in the face of geopolitical tensions. It singles out the monks’ spiritual crises and their dedication to duty amid threats from Islamist militants for particular focus.

The critic praises the film's nuanced, humane study of the monks' deliberations and communal life amid threats, highlighting its serene mood and focus on piety over peril. The standout element is the monks' journey toward unity in facing their fate, shown through powerful emotional scenes like their reaction to music.

The piece describes the film as a superbly crafted and exalting portrait of the monks' lifestyle in harmony with the local community, noting its forgiving and even-handed approach to their martyrdom. It singles out the gentle, serene mood as suiting the subject, though noting it doesn't fully escape Catholic mythologising.

The film combines lite formalism and tendentious topicality but mistakes volume for weight in its long scenes and offers little insight into either the monks or the militants. It singles out the Swan Lake dinner scene and the monks’ fatalist hymns as examples of its shortcomings in conveying spirituality or complexity.

The sombre, measured tone effectively draws viewers into the monks' world and highlights the chilling beauty of key sequences like the last supper, though it risks overly venerating its subjects.

The film offers a poetic tribute to the monks through its story of faith and principle amid encroaching violence, but its deliberate pace will be too slow for many viewers.

The film provides an insightful look at faith and tolerance in dangerous times but is overly solemn and heavy-handed, lacking deeper exploration of the characters' doubts.

The film moves at a glacial pace with a threadbare story, making it hard to discern a plot for much of its runtime. While the depiction of the monks is non-exploitative and their sacrifice admirable, the austere minimalism equates to a lack of emotional depth or complexity.