“… a certain vitality is strangely missing, and not because of the subject matter.”

“… a momentous movie, if not quite as momentous as it thinks it is.”

“… establishes its own unique identity by intimately portraying an identity in flux.”

“David Lean returns to the type of tortured romance he had explored in 1945’s Brief Encounter.”

“There’s a beating heart to the film, but it’s faint.”

“… a potboiler with spiritual principles, a crisis-of-faith drama full of courtroom intrigue.”

“… a stirring argument that the Black experience deserves a place in British history.”

“… never allows the cast to break out of the types established in the opening scene.”

“…a sad, if truthful, account of a quietly desperate existence.”

“…a story with a palpable familiarity among its characters, one that breeds both love and contempt.”