...engaging and even arty enough to satisfy.

| Jan 8, 2019

It's a respectable, luxurious production that moves quickly for its length, but never quite brings to life a time in history of enormous social and political upheavals that may seem distant to many viewers.

| Oct 17, 2017

The question of whether Dominic Graf's costume drama romance Beloved Sisters needs to be three hours long is an academic one on many levels.

| Aug 24, 2017

The premise of Beloved Sisters is alluring and entertaining. The cast is gorgeous, as is the cinematography and painterly tableaux... However, Graf does Schiller, his contemporaries, and the events of the time a disservice.

| Jun 20, 2017

It's a fascinating story, and as he explores the giddiness and disillusionment of this peculiar love triangle, filmmaker Dominik Graf gives us something peculiar: a history lesson disguised as a soap opera.

| Apr 26, 2017

A dull film. [Full review in Spanish]

| Aug 1, 2016

Making great use of a narrator, the film has a storybook quality to it. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jul 29, 2016

Like the three-hour historical epics of old, Beloved is a big, chewy melodrama, filled with simmering yearning and cold sweats.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 22, 2016

With its heavy-breathing material, Beloved Sisters has possibilities, but veteran director Dominik Graf swerves recklessly between the arthouse and soap opera.

| Jun 19, 2015

Its rewards include some remarkable performances (the girls' mother, Claudia Messner, is a standout); a convincing sense of time and place; and some romantic encounters with a genuine erotic charge.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 10, 2015

It's epic stuff, and at 170 minutes it's a commitment. Schiller seems to be blazing a trail for German ber-confidence, seeing his modern man as the grand product of all that's been right with history.

| Original Score: B | Mar 13, 2015

Best executed with churning emotions and period-specific cruelties, offering director Dominik Graf something to work his fingers through instead of passively recounting Schiller's admittedly flavorful existence.

| Original Score: B+ | Feb 12, 2015

Dominik Graf's Beloved Sisters [displays] a fascinating visual approach that distinguishes the film apart from its period counterparts.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jan 24, 2015

We wait in vain for that bout of unrestrained passion to put an exclamation point on the threesome.

| Jan 23, 2015

If nothing else, "Beloved Sisters" is one of the most visually striking biopics around. Too bad you have to wade through so much verbiage in order to enjoy it.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jan 22, 2015

Without at least the tawdry pleasure of a little bodice ripping, the film moves along sluggishly, even though it is well acted and handsomely shot.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 22, 2015

A much better version of its genre and its scenario than the average.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jan 15, 2015

When an occasional blast of purple dialogue is triggered (such as ''Save me from my passion!''), it only makes you wish for the unintellectual bodice ripper that the movie should have been.

| Original Score: C+ | Jan 13, 2015

Beautiful historical drama passionately depicts political, social, cultural revolutionary fervor sweeping 18 century Europe inspires 2 women to find ways around restrictions.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jan 10, 2015

As speculative history inspired by a true story, this epic period melodrama would have made for some juicy 18th-century German tabloid fodder.

| Jan 9, 2015