89
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisThe director Sebastian Meise, who wrote the script with Thomas Reider, tells this story with open feeling and steady, emphatic calm.
- 91The Film StageZhuo-Ning SuThe Film StageZhuo-Ning SuGreat Freedom asks a lot of its viewer and offers no rousing Hollywood ending. It’s not a film you see on a whim, but lovers of truthful, humanistic cinema should take note. This one is the real deal, surely to be given a chance. Or two.
- 91IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichIf Great Freedom is a subdued film more interested in studying old scar tissue than licking up fresh wounds, the rare instances when it draws blood . . . are all the more bruising as a result.
- 90The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyChronicling an ignominious chapter in queer history, Great Freedom is also a contemplative psychological study of the effects of incarceration, and beyond that, an unconventional love story, tender but unsentimental.
- 90Screen DailyLee MarshallScreen DailyLee MarshallWhile it smoulders with indignation for the injustice that was perpetrated for so many years, Great Freedom is also a love story, a remarkable character study, and an absorbing meditation on what long-term imprisonment for a crime that is not a crime does to the soul.
- 88Slant MagazineDiego SemereneSlant MagazineDiego SemereneIn Great Freedom, the question of love is refreshingly never too far from bodily intimacy, irrespective of what kind of love that is.
- 88RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzRogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzIt's one of [Rogowski's] most moving and fully imagined performances, anchoring a drama that tries to do a bit too much for its own good in terms of structure.
- 60TheWrapDan CallahanTheWrapDan CallahanThe conclusion of Great Freedom manages to finesse the flaws of the movie, and it winds up feeling genuinely tragic.
- 58The PlaylistGregory EllwoodThe PlaylistGregory EllwoodDespite a very frank and welcome illustration of gay sexuality rarely seen in modern media (in this manner at least), Greater Freedom continually teases us with storylines and subject matter by choosing to frame this era through a relationship that it cannot rationalize.