70
Metascore
26 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90The Hollywood ReporterRay BennettThe Hollywood ReporterRay BennettWith a cast of Scottish, German and French actors all speaking their own language, writer-director Christian Carion has fashioned a deeply moving and uplifting piece.
- 90VarietyLisa NesselsonVarietyLisa NesselsonA period drama marbled with humor, bold gestures and bittersweet consequences.
- 88USA TodayClaudia PuigUSA TodayClaudia PuigJoyeux Noël is gritty and disturbing with its extended scenes of war and destruction. It also is emotional, even a touch sentimental.
- 75Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerChristian Science MonitorPeter RainerIf audiences are hesitant to believe that the fraternization in this film really happened, it will be because of the storytelling, not the story.
- 70Village VoiceJessica WinterVillage VoiceJessica WinterCarion is no Jean Renoir, but he does strike an appealingly low key of tender, faintly goofy affinity between the combatants.
- 70L.A. WeeklyElla TaylorL.A. WeeklyElla TaylorJoyeux Noël finishes up as no more than a garden-variety tearjerker, neatly packaged for Oscar candidacy. It's not hard to see why the French chose this inoffensive weepie as their nominee for best foreign-language film, when they might have had Jacques Audiard's far superior, if more difficult, "The Beat That My Heart Skipped" or Arnaud Desplechin's "Kings & Queen."
- 70Los Angeles TimesCarina ChocanoLos Angeles TimesCarina ChocanoThe uncomplicated humanism of Joyeux Noël, with its Christmas message of peace, feels at once irrefutable and refreshing.
- 67The A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe A.V. ClubNathan RabinThough a painless time-passer, Joyeux Noël ultimately contributes little to the venerable anti-war genre beyond its curious message that to some degree, war is hell because it prevents soldiers from making really neat friends and pen-pals from different counties.
- 50The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenIf the film's sentiments about the madness of war are impeccably high-minded, why then does Joyeux Noël, an Oscar nominee for best foreign-language film, feel as squishy and vague as a handsome greeting card declaring peace on earth?
- 50New York Daily NewsJami BernardNew York Daily NewsJami BernardYou can't go wrong with an uplifting, anti-war story like this, but director Christian Carion trowels on the schmaltz, and the movie's emphasis on Christian values actually seems to spell doom for solving today's conflicts with the Middle East.