Search: Starring Frances McDormand

Captures the seriousness and the sweetness perfectly

It is not as though we have not seen this sort of comic crime-gone-wrong chaos from the Coens before, but there is no-one who does it better.

Brilliantly original.

The thriller element is compromised by pot noodle psychology.

Either the Coens have no conception of reality, or the people they write about lost the place half way between there and here.

It all has a very particular flavour. Even a new one.

The script is full of witty gems, while still remaining rooted in reality.

Child childs will love it

The Coens' obvious fun in concocting scenes of mid-century paranoia is infectious.

Go in as a fan of Anderson's work and you will not be disappointed. Go in as a fan of film and you will likely be delighted.

Writer/director Lisa Cholodenko dispenses with cliche in favour of genuine characterisation and her script is a paragon of understatement.

It looks privileged and innocent, without the benefit of charm.

Even the Coen Bros cannot stimulate interest in a guy who has switched the lights off inside his head.

Guinevere is the only well-developed character and the whole thing has an air of prettiness and predictability.

The perfect summer movie for the eternally 12 who like to travel in style.

What worked so well in The Rider, namely that people were playing versions of themselves, falls flat because of the casting of McDormand in the lead.

What finally raises the film above its somewhat programmatic, fight-the-power formula is its willingness to provide a believable context for the abuse.

At its core, this is a character study, with the contradictory American character summed up in one man.

The film steers clear of clichés.

Fortunately, McDormand never lets Mildred's hold on us slip, balancing the conundrum of a woman who is simultaneously a mum, who likes a beer and a game of pool, and a Rambo-style avenging angel.

The most intelligent American movie since The Ice Storm to deal with the dissolution of promise, the death of ideals and how creative passion is a form of insanity.

Polley has crammed in a lot of good ideas, but they cannot all usefully share the same space.