Synopsis
Richard and Rachel, a couple in the throes of infertility, try to maintain their marriage as they descend deeper and deeper into the insular world of assisted reproduction and domestic adoption.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Kathryn HahnRachel Biegler
- Paul GiamattiRichard Grimes
- Kayli CarterSadie Barrett
- Molly ShannonCynthia Grimes
- John Carroll LynchCharlie Grimes
- Desmin BorgesSam
- Denis O'HareDr. Dordick
- Siobhan Fallon HoganBeth
- Emily RobinsonCharlotte Grimes
- Tracee ChimoCaroline
Recommendations
- 100
New York Magazine (Vulture)
Jenkins’ writing underlines the fundamental instability at the heart of all our lives, while proposing that most universal of remedies: empathy, love. - 91
IndieWire
Crucially, these characters are so believable that every scene has an internal logic and justifies itself. - 87
Paste Magazine
Giamatti gives one of his surest, simplest performances in quite a while, playing a supportive husband who, we suspect, may not be quite as gung-ho about conceiving as his wife is. And while Carter is very good as a young woman trying to find herself—full of youthful enthusiasm but also provocation—Private Life is mostly a glorious showcase for Hahn. - 83
The Film Stage
A generous, graceful, full-hearted drama about the complexities of desiring a child when your physiology denies you at every turn. - 80
Time Out
The riskiness of [Jenkins'] set-up, one that blooms with complications and rawness, is a thing of adventurous beauty. Her film is a gift to those people who discretely flinch at every dinner party and kid-celebratory anecdote. - 80
Vox
Private Life is an accessible and complex portrait of two people whose ardent shared desire for a child leads them in some unconventional directions, and it’s a joy to watch whether or not you’ve shared their experience. - 75
The A.V. Club
The film’s dramatic core, its vision of what this kind of experience can do to a marriage, is rock solid, because Jenkins explores it with a high degree of specificity, precisely dramatizing her own difficult experiences. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
Looked at independently, so many scenes contain something raw or truthful that one understands Jenkins' reluctance to trim.
