After making such a brilliant splash with his first two films -- Show Me Love and Together -- the Swedish director Lukas Moodysson seems to dry up in Lilya 4-ever.

| Dec 7, 2018

The social questions it raises are real enough; its sentimentality is what makes one doubt Moodysson is Ingmar Bergman's heir. Not by a long sob.

| Jan 10, 2018

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 30, 2006

[Moodysson] dives into the soul of a 16-year-old Estonian girl and tears you apart.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 25, 2003

A wrenching feel-bad movie graced by a luminous central performance.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jun 27, 2003

It is Akinshina's presence and performance that make the pedestrian story heart-wrenching.

Full Review | May 28, 2003

... a fantastic movie.

Full Review | May 27, 2003

What Lilja 4-Ever has in common with the greatest films is its spiritual transcendence. Don't miss it.

| May 16, 2003

Stark and unblinking.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 9, 2003

I read of thousands of women from Eastern Europe who are lured into virtual slavery. I hope some of their clients will attend this movie, even if for the wrong reasons, and see what they are responsible for.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 9, 2003

Lukas Moodysson, a young Swedish director, crafts a stunner of a film out of familiar turf.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 8, 2003

By the end of the film, our hearts will burn and break for Lilya.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 8, 2003

It says nothing more useful than: isn't this shocking? Aren't we powerless to do anything about it?

| May 4, 2003

Lilya's struggle to make a life for herself is both heartbreaking and heart-stirring.

Full Review | May 2, 2003

Akinshina, a gorgeous and extraordinarily poised young actress, can switch in a flash from wounded kid to jaded know-it-all.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 25, 2003

Akinshina, a beauty on the order of Anna Kournikova, is a terrific actress who manages, amid the bleakness of her scenes, to create a fully dimensional portrait of a confused teenager who loses her innocence and virtually all hope, but never her pride.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 18, 2003

Lilya is portrayed by Oksana Akinshina, who gives a dynamic, heartbreaking performance.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 18, 2003

Lilya seeps into your bones, and it's not easy to shake off.

| Apr 18, 2003

Both an archetypal case study and a personal drama whose spunky central character you come to care about so deeply that you want to cry out a warning at each step toward her ruination.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 17, 2003

This isn't an easy film -- only a memorable one.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 17, 2003