It's astonishingly moving, in its quiet, harrowing, weary way, although you may rightly ask: if it's so painful, why would I want to sit though it? Because, my dears, that is life.

| Aug 30, 2018

The film is a matter of Brenda Blethyn's performance vs. Sotigui Kouyate's presence.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 16, 2012

It would be nice to say that Bouchareb, who also wrote and directed "Days of Glory" and "Outside the Law," succeeds. He does not entirely. But he doesn't fail, either.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 12, 2012

Blethyn and Kouyat inhabit and expand the film's earnestly instructive intentions, leaving us with a deeply-felt experience rather than a naively-sketched lesson.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 8, 2011

"London River'' features on-target acting by its two leads, but they receive scant support from the wobbly plot.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 8, 2011

Demonstrates how great acting can infuse a banal, politically correct drama with dollops of emotional truth.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 6, 2011

There's such a graceful sense of restraint in how this real-life tragedy is treated, one that filters any potential for ripped-from-yesterday's-headlines sensationalism through a respectful requiem of loss and grief.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 6, 2011

Bouchareb brings a measured hand to this intimate, occasionally overdetermined sketch of the aloneness at the center of our global confluence.

| Dec 6, 2011

Although the film occasionally cuts away to contextualized clips from news reports, it keeps its focus small-scale, filtering the world historical through the intimately personal.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 4, 2011

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 14, 2011

The emotion feels credible, the connections seem real and, if only briefly, the title truly earns its metaphor -- the same river does run through us all.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 13, 2011

This is a noble tribute to a day we all witnessed five years ago, and pray we will never see again.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 16, 2010

It's taken a very long time to get released here. But London River is a thoughtful, resonant meditation on 7/7.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 8, 2010

An insight-filled take on prejudice in post-11/7 London that packs a hefty punch.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 8, 2010

In the film's latter stages, Blethyn's heart-on-the-sleeve acting style finally combines with the marvellous Kouyat's watchful intelligence and frail dignity to moving effect.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 8, 2010

There's only been one 7/7 film before this -- the shrill nonsense-fest that was Incendiary. Thankfully, this is much better.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 8, 2010

Blethyn brings tremendous empathy to the introspective, determined Elisabeth, while the tall, gaunt and dreadlocked Ousmane fleshes out his less-dimensional role with a haunting sadness that speaks volumes.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 13, 2009