The best parts of the movie, like the scene with William's mother, involve isolated set pieces in which Weisz interacts with another actor.
- Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic, April 26, 2012
"It's difficult to judge when you're caught between the devil and the deep blue sea." So it is.
- Rick Groen, Globe and Mail, April 13, 2012
Weisz gives a heartbreaking performance; her Hester spirals into doom, hungry for the physical pleasures she has found.
- Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 12, 2012
Hiddleston is good as the fickle playboy but Weisz, who smoulders as Hester, is better.
- Linda Barnard, Toronto Star, April 12, 2012
The plot is formulaic; the power lies elsewhere.
- Craig Mathieson, The Age (Australia), April 11, 2012
This beautifully photographed film, which starts with an outstanding long crane shot accompanied by Samuel Barber's haunting violin music, breathes fresh life into what might have been an arcane story from another, not so fashionable, era.
- David Stratton, At the Movies (Australia), April 11, 2012
Boasting a first-rate screenplay and cast, and a wonderfully nostalgic atmosphere, this sometimes veers toward melodrama but always rings true.
- Mark Demetrius, FILMINK (Australia), April 11, 2012
The Deep Blue Sea best combines Davies's representation of memory with a traditional narrative structure. The result is his finest film to date.
- Thomas Caldwell, Cinema Autopsy, April 10, 2012
The challenge to make this play work is immense, and it has not been successful. Understatement of emotions has been translated as lacking pace
- Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile, April 07, 2012
Hopelessness, contemplation, confusion, anger and regret form a moody cocoon, as the film's beautiful protagonist, superbly portrayed by Rachel Weisz, tries to manage the maze of emotions
- Louise Keller, Urban Cinefile, April 07, 2012
This is Rachel Weisz's movie. She's as luminous as a Pre-Raphaelite portrait, yet she brings to Hester a high-wire, modern tremulousness...
- David Edelstein, NPR, April 06, 2012
An oddly muted, inert tale of adultery and unrequited passion in post-war London.
- Don Groves, sbs.com.au, April 01, 2012
This is an extremely deft job of adaptation.
- Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune, March 30, 2012
It's a time machine of a movie; but who will want to take the trip?
- Tom Long, Detroit News, March 30, 2012
Maddeningly oblique and incomplete, despite paying what at times feels like excruciating attention to the minutiae of a dying love affair's final hours.
- Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post, March 30, 2012
Rachel Weisz - in what has to be the performance of her career, and there have been lots of good ones - plays an intelligent woman in the grip of a lust that's too big to handle or suppress. She can either ride the tiger or be devoured.
- Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle, March 29, 2012
[Weisz'] performance that transforms her from actress to movie star.
- Dana Stevens, Slate, October 01, 2012
A story of passion and its aftermath; of what happens when an unhappy woman goes chasing after something shiny, only to find how quickly it fades.
- Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times, April 19, 2012
- , Sight and Sound, June 18, 2012
Davies doesn't provide stylish counterweights to the heavy drama. Any story that starts with a woman writing a suicide note is cheating us of an honest investment in the outcome.
- Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 19, 2012
