Metacritic reviews

Movies like this are not for everyone, but arrive like private messages for their own particular audiences.

Simple, earnest and workmanlike, it sings of Olof, glad and big, and how he lost his -- well, we can't say what he lost.

Swedish cinema has been famous for a number of things: beautiful actresses, fine sexy psychological dramas, natural settings, cinematic bawdiness and a touch of melancholy. Under the Sun fits that profile well.

A charming, finely nuanced romance.

Under the Sun doesn't intend to be dramatic, much less melodramatic. This beautiful film just wants to capture life's simplicity.

Gentle and gorgeous, honoring atmosphere over attitude.

The performances are likable and there's nothing really wrong with the story -- other than the fact that Nutley hardly has any story to tell.

The kind of quotidian pastoral -- about a simple, honest peasant who finds the greatest love of all -- that the Academy invariably finds irresistible.

All three lead actors are adroit; but the story, adapted from a short story by H.E. Bates, is both contrived and not very well told.

It has the melancholy mildew of both "Marty" and the 1940's weepie "The Enchanted Cottage."