Kritiken

Confidently and maturely directed, Nobody Knows is a film of serene composition whose graceful and emotional narrative takes the pulse of a nation through the tragedy of one family.

In capturing the details of the children’s world that are both quotidian and lyrically beautiful, Kore-eda’s combination of documentary and romantic visual modes (and the leisurely pace of his editing) creates a quietly expressive cityscape.

Nobody Knows is not a film “about” abandonment so much as a poetic, intensely subjective and empathic portrait of what it feels like to be in this predicament.

This is one of those rare performances that could only be given in movies, a performance that penetrates to the heart of film acting -- behaving unself-consciously in front of the camera. That it comes from so young an actor makes it all the more remarkable.

Hirokazu Kore-eda's splendid, crushing new film "Nobody Knows" floats like a feather yet finally plunges like a dagger.

Like many disaster movies, Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Nobody Knows" uses its characters to symbolize both destructive ignorance and the hopeful potential for survival. And yet like very few of these movies, "Nobody Knows" takes as its central disaster a familial abandonment rather than an asteroid or a tidal wave. The events are no less cataclysmic because of this smaller scale.

Finding a film as simple, honest, and emotionally overwhelming as Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Nobody Knows" is such a rarity that the occasion truly warrants the kind of critical overload showered on 2004 favorites "Sideways" and "Million Dollar Baby." The problem in writing about it lies in figuring out what's left to say about a work so seamless that it almost short-circuits discussion.

It will surprise no one familiar with [Kore-eda] that his latest picture is calm and careful, wise and kind, suffused with subtle performances and subtler luminescence.

The standard complaint is that the film is too long at 141 minutes, but Kore-eda wants the audience to feelthe passing of time, down to watching the threads fray on the children's garments.