What Richard Did

Name: What Richard Did
Director: Lenny Abrahamson
Released: 2012

Synopsis

What Richard Did is a striking portrait of the fall of a Dublin golden-boy and high school rugby star whose world unravels one summer night.

80
The Guardian
What Richard Did is an engrossing and intelligent drama that throbs in the mind for hours after the final credits.
80
The Telegraph
An acutely compassionate account of unshakeable guilt.
80
Empire
A tough, impactful film that offers a sometimes uncomfortable but always gripping examination of cause and effect.
80
Time Out London
Abrahamson has pulled off something quietly remarkable: a study of morality which never feels like a treatise, a bracingly realistic film about teenagers which never becomes patronising and a gripping melodrama which swerves sentiment. He may also have unearthed a genuine star.
80
Time Out
This teen drama from Ireland is split almost perfectly down the middle: First, 40 understated minutes following a local golden boy named Richard (Jack Reynor) as he enjoys his last summer before college, trailed by 40-odd gut-wrenching minutes surveying the fallout from a single violent act he foolishly commits at a party.
80
Village Voice
The film feel[s] like a Bergman homage without earning the clunky label "Bergmanesque."
75
Slant Magazine
The film's structure as a character study helps to subtly underscore the flawed justifications of a privileged kid's thought patterns and unchallenged value system.
70
The Hollywood Reporter
But even if What Richard Did is sometimes a little too understated for its own good, this is still a classy piece of work which convincingly captures the emotionally complex, morally murky texture of real life.