89% Keep the Lights On

All Critics (54) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (6)

The cast, uniformly excellent, draws us into a vibrant, energetic Manhattan where commitments are forged and broken through sheer chance and those seeking permanence must continually resist temptation and ennui.

A complex and mysterious tale of a love affair, one that lacks the tidy story arc of a movie but feels real.

When you summon memories of this film, they are almost always of two men in a room, in a default state of discontent.

A heart-breaking love story and call for emotional transparency in relationships.

The movie over-blurs the line between plain and plaintive. It's not necessarily craziness you crave, it's inflection; it's need, if not from the characters then from the filmmaking.

Observing Erik face the inevitable, that loving a drug addict means always coming second to the substance, is heartbreaking and real.

It feels as if we're being given glimpses into real lives unfolding.

There's a lot to like here, and if you're a traditionalist who hungers for a happy ending, you'll find it embedded in the opening credits.

Director-cowriter Sachs takes an unusually intimate look at a 10-year relationship in this beautifully shot and performed New York drama.

A tenderly observed portrait of a man aching for romance even as he resists the idea of full commitment.

Every frame pulses with hard-gained experience: it may be the most lived-in film of 2012, and certainly counts among the most moving.

Monitoring the peaks and troughs of this fractious relationship is more fascinating than enjoyable.

A visually arresting and wholly compelling drama, thanks to its gorgeously warm cinematography, pleasing soundtrack and impressive and convincing performances from its two male leads.

This is a painful drama, but its pain is more studied than emotive, and it demands that we think just as much as it makes us feel.

Feels lopsided in its focus on Erik, with Paul remaining a strangely remote object of the former's romantic devotion.

While not quite on a par with Andrew Haigh's Weekend, this is still an undeniably powerful piece of filmmaking.

It is a film in which we see snapshots of a long-term love affair that seems doomed from the start. The raw truth of much of it is strong enough to make the sometimes frustrating structure forgivable.

It all has the feel of a pretentious film student desperately trying to make a statement with his thesis film. It's extremely overwrought with laughable melodrama.

I suspect it will have particular appeal for those who struggle with addiction.

A gay relationship story told with subtlety and a sense of insight that comes from personal experience.

Keep the Lights On is an intense, haunting and gut-wrenchingly honest character drama about how addiction can tear love apart.

The performances are first-rate, with Lindhardt particularly moving as a guy who's in deep denial about just how much he can expect from a relationship with an addict.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/keep_the_lights_on/

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