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Allelujah

2022

Richard Eyre

Judi Dench, David Bradley, Jennifer Saunders, Derek Jacobi ...

5.1

Drama The story of a geriatric ward in a small Yorkshire hospital threatened with closure.

	Media	Author	Review
		Johnny Oleksinski New York Post	"The dinky drama gets steadily more depressing as it plods along. There's nothing wrong with some silver screen sorrow, but not when it amounts to indecisive mush (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"Sweet but slight drama (...) Richard Eyre directs with a sure hand (...) A low-key, attractive, if minor Alan Bennett (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Gregory Ellwood The Playlist	"A film that feels like a collection of familiar hospital set storylines thrown together without a true compelling throughline"
		Robert Abele The Wrap	"[A] comedy that balances wisecracks about aging and blistering commentary on health-care cuts (...) A sneakily dark and seething [film] about looking out for each other in a casually cruel world"
		Leslie Felperin The Hollywood Reporter	"The film is something of a disappointment. It’s not bad as such, but it’s sort of a stodgy mess, nutritious but over-seasoned with melodramatic elements, not unlike a hospital meal"
		Wendy Ide Screendaily	"'Allelujah' is a curious collision of tones and themes (...) The aims are laudable, but the execution is as baggy as a discarded pair of support tights"
		Phil de Semlyen Time Out	"Like a hand grenade in a tombola, a harrowing third-act twist detonates beneath it and narrative and tonal destruction ensues (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		Kevin Maher The Times	"A tightly played, witty, funny and provocative drama, with one of the year's best twists. What more could you want? Besides an ending? (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Robbie Collin Telegraph	"Wry, sly and rousing, it's enough to get you out on the doorstep to bang for Bennett, saucepan and wooden spoon in hand (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Jordan King Empire	"The film is constantly compromised by its attempts to barb its bouquets of community cutesiness with polemical punches (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		Guy Lodge Variety	"It didactically calls out governmental hypocrisy while exposing corrupt elements and inefficiencies within the institution itself (...) It wavers tonally between cozy comedy and head-on polemic (...) It plays things safe"
		Daniel Keane London Evening Standard	"An incoherent jumble of ideas and feelings that fails to land the message it intends (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		Damon Wise Deadline	"In some ways the bleakness is to be commended (...) But it’s one thing to be a realistic reflection of a complicated issue and quite another to be a tonal muddle"

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