I Dream in Another Language's reviews
Media reviews
Roger Ebert
'I Dream in Another Language' functions with the awe of a fantasy, but instead of going to different worlds, it takes on different ideas like history, when it makes an extended flashback to what drove Evaristo and Isauro apart years ago. The movie, too, offers a unique sense of fantasy with learning about this language, which inspires some supernatural moments purely using sound and image (no special effects). It becomes a fantasy for adults, in search of magic within real human situations and even a good amount of sexual content.
Los Angeles Times
This is an unusual venture, both charming and serious, that goes in more directions than anticipated, including more than a touch of magic realism.
Variety
Gentle and empathetic, the movie is constructed in such a way that it ultimately doesn?t matter whether or not Martín manages to preserve Zikril [...]. In the end, it?s enough for the two elderly characters to relive those memories and to find the appropriate words to say to one another after all these years ? which, of course, the audience finds itself in the privileged position not only to witness, but to understand, courtesy of an intimate on-screen translation.
Screen Daily
Primarily, much of the movie?s success stems from Contreras, his regular cinematographer Tonatiuh Martínez and the rest of the technical team?s handling of its spiritual musings, with a beguiling mood as crucial as the underlying backstory.
The Hollywood Reporter
There's one key moment in which that same viewer would love to know what the two old men are thinking and saying, but frustratingly, we aren?t allowed access to their thoughts or conversation. In other words, the ideas of Language are all there, and are fascinating and worthy of consideration; it?s just that they never take on full dramatic life.
New York Times
The story is not without interest, and it touches on a couple of worthwhile themes: cultural erasure and the way religious and provincial prejudices can suppress love. But its treatment of these subjects is perhaps undercut by its conventionality, which even extends to the movie?s left turn into a kind of magic realism late in the story.