This feelgood flick will almost certainly be an international hit and it is undeniably uplifting, the joyousness of soul music smoothing out the odd shifts in tone that arise as a result of the strange genre conflict.

| Aug 11, 2017

This charming Australian import has a groove much like other low-key, let's-put-on-a-show indies such as Hear My Song and The Commitments, and never uses its social conscience as simply backbeat.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 1, 2014

Exuberant but fairly formulaic.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 12, 2013

The harmonies they strike in this reality-inspired charmer are sweetly sublime.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 5, 2013

You could drive an Abrams tank through the film's plot holes, but you'll likely be too busy enjoying yourself to bother.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 5, 2013

"The Sapphires" feels like a movie you've already seen, but it's nonetheless thoroughly enjoyable, like a pop song that's no less infectious when you know every word.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 4, 2013

Sapphires is hardly a cinematic diamond mine. But this Commitments-style mashup of music and melodrama manages to entertain without demanding too much of its audience.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 4, 2013

It's pure joy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 4, 2013

It's a sweet little tale, and that co-writer Tony Briggs is the son of one of the real-life singers adds to the heart-tugging. In the end, though, it's not quite enough to sustain a feature-length film.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 4, 2013

The Sapphires shouldn't gleam as brightly as it does. The up-from-struggle story follows the predictable form of movies like these, from Dreamgirls to The Commitments. But there's such a sense of joy ... that it's hard not to be won over.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 4, 2013

Draining most of the blood, sweat and tears from a true story, this music-minded movie capably covers a song we've heard a hundred times before.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 4, 2013

Let's trivialize a legacy of cruelty and denigration, in a country where indigenous people suffered from centuries of human rights abuse! And let's make the carnage of Vietnam look like a paintball game!

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 28, 2013

[A] genial, entertaining, clich-ridden showbiz story from Australia.

| Mar 28, 2013

"The Sapphires" illustrates how the same old story - in this case, the one about a 1960s girl group and its struggles - can be freshened up through the novelties of place and characterization.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 28, 2013

A very conventional story of a '60s Australian girl group gains extra power from its context and setting in this fact-based story set to the beat of Motown soul.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 28, 2013

The performers improve it, or save it, depending on your viewpoint.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 28, 2013

"The Sapphires" is a bit like a puppy you're trying to house break. It may have its bad cinematic moments but it's just so darn appealing that you have to love it.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 26, 2013

It helps that the leading actors are so skillful and appealing, beginning with Chris O'Dowd as a roguish Irishman who becomes the girls' manager...

| Mar 24, 2013

Why resist?

| Mar 22, 2013

For the most part Aussie director Wayne Blair's feature debut is snappy and fresh.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 22, 2013