70
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasLos Angeles TimesKevin ThomasAn example of sophisticated, impassioned filmmaking involving mainly people who lived through the harrowing experiences so unsparingly depicted, Journey From the Fall powerfully illustrates the refugee/immigrant experience.
- 88Boston GlobeJanice PageBoston GlobeJanice PageEven when its wires are showing, the movie's soul is always evident.
- 80Film ThreatFilm ThreatJourney from the Fall re-educates as well as entertains, but never takes the easy way out, nor does it preach. In the end, it's a snippet of one family forever altered, and despite all the political undertones, it's the human level on which the film succeeds most of all.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenThe Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenA movingly rendered, stirringly photographed first feature by Ham Tran.
- 80VarietyVarietyA post-Vietnam War boat people saga is launched to compelling effect in Journey From the Fall, a sleek U.S. production.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleSan Francisco ChronicleIf there is a beef to be had, it is that Tran seems to have tried so hard to make a movie of importance that his characters often resemble archetypes as opposed to people; the game cast appears straitjacketed at times. Still, it's a story that needed to be told.
- The film depicts one family's endurance in sturdy, old-movie style, with sweeping camerawork, a monumental and occasionally intrusive orchestral score, gorgeous yet forbidding natural vistas and enough shocking tragedies, brazen escapes and crowd-pleasing acts of defiance to fuel several action-adventure pictures.
- 67Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenA popular Vietnamese fable that bookends this first-time filmmaker's movie may have the effect of distancing more Americans than it draws in, but once the film gets going there is no turning your back on it.
- 50Village VoiceVillage VoiceTran's reliance on declamatory political dialogue and movie-of-the-week inspirationalism feels decidedly old-fashioned and, finally, even phony.
- 42Seattle Post-IntelligencerBill WhiteSeattle Post-IntelligencerBill WhiteThe film may be like looking through a stranger's scrapbook. With sketchy and didactic scenes lacking narrative cohesion, it is a collection of often strong images that fail to come to life.