Critics Of "The Land of Steady Habits (Au pays des habitudes)"
San Francisco Chronicle
September 13, 2018
Really bad decisions are made, people lie, no one convincingly grows. Lest this be taken as biting commentary, the music, stilted dialogue and epilogue assure us it's in earnest.
Holofcener understands human behavior and her sharp, well-observed Land Of Steady Habits is as lovely and near amazing as anything she's made thus far.
The decision to spend a little time on a lot of different characters results in a splintered story that muddles - rather then clarifies - its protagonist's roundabout journey back to himself.
In the well-trod territory of fiction about rich men in self-induced emotional crises, the film stands as a worthy, if not exactly groundbreaking, addition.
No detail ever seems to go unnoticed in Holofcener's world, and viewers could spend the entire running time simply admiring her powers of surveillance.
Nicole Holofcener's The Land of Steady Habits often suggests the film that American Beauty might have been if the latter had been pruned of its smug hysteria.
