77
Metascore
29 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 85Film ThreatCalan PanchooFilm ThreatCalan PanchooArcel and Mikkelsen have struck a deeply human chord with The Promised Land. It is a tale of undoubted savagery but also one of hope in all its divine illumination.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Promised Land is a terrific story driven by skillful writing and strong performances. There’s an art to bringing vitality and modernity to historical drama, and Arcel shows a firm grasp of it.
- 80New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriNew York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriThe result is the kind of ravishing, rousing epic we don’t really get much of anymore.
- 80Time OutPhil de SemlyenTime OutPhil de Semlyen[Arcel's] crafted a kind of Danish The Last of the Mohicans that’s full of passion and political conviction. It should stand the test of time almost as well as its rugged hero.
- 78TheWrapSteve PondTheWrapSteve PondArcel has created a film that is big, bold and over-the-top, but it has the right guy at its center to hold everything together – and, in a touch we didn’t know we needed, that guy has the right person by his side.
- 75The PlaylistElena LazicThe PlaylistElena LazicA handsome historical drama featuring plenty of gorgeous gowns, powdered wigs, and bored aristocrats, the film is, however, an unusually earthy proposition where nature, in its most unmanicured and unwieldy form, plays a major role.
- 70VarietyGuy LodgeVarietyGuy LodgeNotionally rooted in historical fact, but embellished with storybook romance and flouncing cartoon villainy, this roundly enjoyable Venice competition entry finally owes all its residual gravitas (and at least half its considerable handsomeness) to the expressive woodcut visage of one Mads Mikkelsen.
- 67The Film StageC.J. PrinceThe Film StageC.J. PrinceArcel doesn’t shy away from the harshness of the time period, in both people and environment, which gives his film an edge that keeps its story engaging.
- 58IndieWireNatalia WinkelmanIndieWireNatalia WinkelmanThis sweeping, stagy movie sags and drags, never quite able to shake the weight of its own loftiness.