A Sundance/BBC2 co-production, “The Honorable Woman” stars Maggie Gyllenhaal as a peace-loving British technology tycoon, the daughter of an assassinated Israeli arms dealer.
... a smart, moodily complex thriller … this is a BBC series that is excellent and also amusingly solipsistic: It’s as preoccupied with the waning of British power as it is with today’s conflagration. … an astute, sensitive and at times delicate psychological drama that is evenhanded in the nonincendiary sense of the word: No side is entirely to blame, and there are villains, innocent victims and foolish dupes on both sides. …
... "The Honorable Woman" is great, in the most traditional sense of the word, which makes its flaws all the more frustrating. The first three episodes are often overwhelmed by soundtrack and studded with near-still-life shots meant, apparently, to offset the shootouts and establish the High Art factor of the series. Sometimes the lingering close-up or frozen interior shots work, but too often they feel strained and calculated, as if Blick were trying too hard to make "The Honorable Woman" something more than television. …
... Having watched the first four absorbing episodes, I can report that “The Honorable Woman” is a slow-building but gripping story, regardless of where you stand on Mideast politics; Gyllenhaal delivers a remarkably measured and moving performance. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
... A smart, deliberately paced, closed-ended miniseries …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
... You truly do not begin to make much sense of any of it until the end of the second episode, and there are moments when, were it not for Gyllenhaal's performance (and those of the rest of the cast), you'll find yourself ready to raise the white flag. But don't. Although Blick's structural concept skirts close to mannered gimmickry, it also makes artistic sense. We are slowly but unavoidably drawn into the ever thickening mire of secrets, lies and shifting allegiances in both the lives of the characters and, of course, in the constant strife in the Middle East. …
... The first half of this brilliantly cast, rather ploddingly paced, eight-part production is classy but only periodically eventful, an understated affair that can be admired for its ambition and elevated brow, but which fails to create much urgency about hanging around long enough to unlock its mysteries. If the channel’s hoping for another “Top of the Lake,” “Woman” doesn’t rise to that level. …
... As if one of the great surprises of the television season, The Honorable Woman on Sundance TV, needed any advantage beyond its own complex brilliance and a career-defining performance by Maggie Gyllenhaal, it also happens to be incredibly timely. …
10 p.m. Thursday. Sundance.
