Metacritic reviews

If not for Sareum’s charismatic performance the film might fold like a house of cards.

The result is relentless and involving even when it stumbles. Jolie may not be a full-fledged auteur yet, but she unquestionably possesses a singular aesthetic that courses through her work and exists completely apart from her high-profile acting career.

It’s an artful, quietly affecting piece of filmmaking, more than worth the lessons learned.

The film’s real ferocity is saved for the ideologues of terror.

This is Jolie’s most accomplished work yet.

We only see what Loung sees, feel what she experiences but through her ordeal there develops an emotional connection to a country undergoing some of its darkest hours.

What the film doesn’t have is the visceral impact that would take it from a well-intentioned treatise to a searing work of art.

The film is so understated with regard to Loung’s basic predicament that we don’t recognize her driving desire...until the movie is over.

It is gorgeous and suspenseful, and it rushes heedlessly into dangerous terrain.

Amid all the important facts, I longed for something unnecessary from the filmmaker, some expressive flourish whose sole purpose isn’t just to convey information. Again I find myself typing the words, “It’s an unquestionably worthy story, I just wish it was told with more inventiveness.”