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

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

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

"Beloved Sisters" might scratch your costume drama itch, but it's not among the genre's best.

| Original Score: B- | Jan 9, 2015

If more historical movies were like Beloved Sisters, the term "costume drama" would be less of an insult.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 9, 2015

As lengthy and passionate as a drawn-out kiss, "Beloved Sisters" is a beautifully made romantic drama set in 18th century Germany that's smart, sensual and emotionally resonant.

| Jan 8, 2015

The two actresses navigate the emotional complexity of their roles with quicksilver intuition and what seems like near-bottomless empathy.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 8, 2015

With its dearth of substance and its wandering focus, this is a middlebrow bodice-ripper posing as an epic that hasn't the foggiest idea of what it wants to say.

| Jan 8, 2015

This is a world where everyone is continually waiting for letters, visitors, inheritances, and a future that promises personal and political freedom; as such, it can't help but be poignant.

| Original Score: A- | Jan 8, 2015

The resulting menage a trois is the driving force behind this handsomely produced if occasionally rather old-fashioned feeling period drama, which plays like a soap opera in which the characters just happen to have better manners and finery.

| Jan 7, 2015

An unusually intelligent costume drama of bold personalities torn between the stirrings of the heart and the logic of the mind, while casting his revealing gaze upon Western Europe's bumpy transition from the 18th to 19th century.

| Jan 7, 2015

An in-depth and extensive exploration of an unconventional love affair in a highly conventional society.

Full Review | Jan 7, 2015

Graf freshens the pretty period trappings with a headlong embrace of every old-fashioned detail: omniscient narration, characters directly addressing the camera, intertitles.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 7, 2015

The movie is gorgeous, awash in lavish costumes and stunningly detailed sets. But it's merely a wash thematically, leaving us with 170 minutes (!) of unabashedly grandiose fan fiction.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 7, 2015

Tensions mount in the film's somewhat creaky second half. Still, Graf maps these complications with deftness and sensitivity.

| Jan 7, 2015

It goes down easy, like high-grade comfort food. But with revolution in the air (both literal and sexual), the ache of the three leads is enough to sweep you up.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 7, 2015

Beloved Sisters moves at an almost breathless clip, without ever violating its characters' slow sense of time, which is defined by horse-drawn coaches and posted letters.

| Original Score: non-numerical | Nov 6, 2014

It blossoms into a breezily utopian depiction of a mnage trois whose entirely matter-of-fact presentation sets up an intriguing dissonance with the prim period setting.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 15, 2014