Get movie widget Recommend it Add to Favorites

Eva Green, Matt Smith, Hannah Murray, Peter Wright, Tristan Christopher ... see more see more... , István Lénárt , Ruby O. Fee , Lesley Manville , Jesse Hoffmann , Natalia Tena , Ella Smith , Wunmi Mosaku , Alexander Goeller , Adrian Wahlen , Gina Alice Stiebitz

Womb tells the story of the cross-generational love affair between Rebecca (Eva Green) and Thomas (Matt Smith), two childhood friends who, once re-united, became instant lovers - only to be separated ... read more read more...again by Thomas' accidental death. After contemplating suicide, Rebecca finds consolation in the idea of cloning Matt back to life. Although society at large hasn't fully accepted the idea of human cloning, and often ostracizes those who have been cloned, Rebecca decides to forge ahead with her plans to give birth to her lost love - literally. -- (C) Olive

Flixster Users

55% liked it

1,716 ratings

Critics

35% liked it

20 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 47 min.

Directed by: Benedek Fliegauf

Release Date: March 30, 2012

Invite friends to see

Stats: 82 reviews

Photos


Your Rating



clear rating

Flixster Reviews (82)


  • October 15, 2011
    womb is a futuristic mythical tale about first love going awry into the realm of obsessional fixation. what is the ultimate form of love a woman could possibly show for the man? have him within you, inside your womb!

    in the future, technology allows you to clone another human ... read morebeing as long as it's granted by the closest relatives and also it requires some woman who is willing to conceive the fetus of the dead. this film provides us with a revolutionary idea: eternal love through techno-utopia, a challenge toward the finitude of humanity. the film also birngs up some hypothetical political agenda: the human rights of the clone, rendered in a more realistic way than any of those sci-fi movies concerning cloning human life, such as "the island." should they be considered secondary human? (also quite a cliched discussion in the course of posthumanism, but still, no one could bring out an answer.) in this case, womb is a sci-fi romance without the blatant usage of those technical gadgets, on the contrary, the setting is around the primitive beach-area.

    it's about a woman who meets her first love at the age of nine, over some desolate seashore, but when she returns to rekindle that romance, as she begins to resurrect that romance, the man dies all of a sudden in a car accident. so she makes a fatal decision to continue this love by cloning the man she loves. it appears kind of incomprehensible that how could your infatuation with the first love go this far without being physically consummated? which means, how could you grow so attached to a man without being made love to in the first place? (i try to be subtle here.)

    so this affectionately obsessional woman raises the man she loves from infant to child, breast-feeding him, nurturing him just as anything a mother could possibly have done until he grows into adult and makes a girlfriend who he bring back home while the woman has to tolerate his son/lover making love to another woman every night. eventually, he has to leave her in the moment he acquires the truth, just as a man gotta get out of the womb to be a man standing on his own ground. but the moment he sheds off his bond with her, this relationship is finally CONSUMMATED. another way to view it, it would be, everything this woman has ever done is to consummate this relationship, like some un-fulfilled wish she manuevers to realize. it's like she cannot get off without making this wish come true. creepily romantic. eva green does push the envelope of her gothic woman persona, and the movie features non-nudity, no sex scene, as the course of desire is rendered through subdued, withheld gazes and smothering, seemingly innocent physical touches. what lies beneath is the most obscene passion which would transcend it all: the possessively devouring love of a woman, accompanied by the all-encompassing sea, a metaphoric representation of omnipresent/omipotent womb.

    (ps) what i like about this film is how it treats radical material as this, without grotesque uglification of the woman. my minor complaint is, the leading man could have been a bit more attractive to make this love story a bit more convincing. but such set-up does have an odd effect: it makes this romance more like a solipsistic spiral within the woman's head. even the child-actor has more chemistry with eva green than matt smith.
  • April 1, 2012
    In "Womb," Rebecca(Eva Green) returns to the island where she spent a summer with her grandfather(Istvan Lenart). While reclaiming the family home, stuffed moose and all, she looks up Tommy(Matt Smith), a childhood friend, who she now finds also grown up, along with his friend f... read moreor the night, Rose(Natalia Tena). Rebecca and Tommy get reacquainted and she accompanies him to an environmental protest prank involving cockroaches. And that's when tragedy strikes. So Rebecca takes the occasion of meeting with his grieving parents(Lesley Manville & Peter Wight) to ask them to sign a form from the Genetic Replication Department.

    "Womb" is a well-photographed and intriguing movie that is also occasionally creepy as hell. However, none of that sense of unease comes from the idea of cloning which I will leave to those religious thinkers who might object while ironically also preaching rebirth.(I wish we had seen more of this future which mostly seems centered around innovations in genetic engineering. So, sorry, no flying cars.) No, what worries me is Rebecca's behavior. Since the pacing of the movie is so slow, it is hard to tell how quickly time is passing on screen and therefore how much time she spends with Tommy as adults. If it is as brief as I think it is, then there is something definitely off about her wish for a third chance with him.
  • December 13, 2010
    Interesting visuals by Fliegauf, but unfortunately, a very weak script. We have all seen much more interesting and heartfelt takes on Oedipal syndromes, from Chan-woo Park's "Old Boy" to Panos Koutras's "Strella". Eva Green seems to try her best, but the story disappoints and lea... read moreves us wonder if "the life goes on" ending could actually mean something more. If anyone has some interesting second thoughts about it, though, I am ready to listen.

Critic Reviews


Jeannette Catsoulis
March 30, 2012
Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

If the 20-odd seconds of blank screen squatting pointlessly amid the opening credits aren't enough warning that you're in for some seriously sluggish storytelling, then the adoption of a snail as one ... Full Review

V.A. Musetto
March 30, 2012
V.A. Musetto, New York Post

You are unlikely to see a movie about incest made as sensitively and tastefully as "Womb.'' Full Review

Mark Jenkins
March 29, 2012
Mark Jenkins, NPR

The eeriness is underscored by the subtly intricate sound design, and by Green's subtle performance. She deftly balances her desire for the lost Tommy with the maternal responsibility to shield her son. Full Review

Michael Atkinson
March 27, 2012
Michael Atkinson, Village Voice

The glacial pace is only quickened for seconds at a time with evocative ideas. Full Review

Boyd van Hoeij
August 26, 2010
Boyd van Hoeij, Variety

Though Green doesn't seem to age over the course of the film (lucky genes?), she does imbue Rebecca with the necessary gravitas. Full Review

Allan Hunter
May 4, 2012
Allan Hunter, The List

Péter Szatmári's atmospheric photography of brooding, steely blue skies, bleak deserted beaches and soggy autumn woods is one of the chief virtues in this misbegotten enterprise. Full Review

Jason Best
May 4, 2012
Jason Best, Movie Talk

Clone looks good and may get under your skin - if you can put up with the story's glacial pace, which is so creepingly slow that it's no wonder that the token of the pair's childhood love is a snail. Full Review

Henry Barnes
May 3, 2012
Henry Barnes, Guardian [UK]

Shonky science, flat fiction - this should never have left the lab. Full Review

Emma Spedding
May 3, 2012
Emma Spedding, Little White Lies

The only thing which would make this film more awkward is watching it with your parents. Full Review

David Jenkins
April 25, 2012
David Jenkins, Time Out

Despite a fascinating concept, a gorgeous look and a silky score, 'Clone' is difficult to warm to. Full Review

View more Womb reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

More Like This


Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

  • Never Let Me Go
    Never Let Me Go (100%)

Facts


    • Thomas: It's almost incomprehensible. Billions of amazingly complex patterns permanently whirling about us that never repeat themselves.

Womb : Watch Free on TV


Womb Trivia


  • in scarface, why cant tony montana have a baby with his wife? is it because......  Answer »
  • Which film includes the following line: "Her womb was a rocky place, where my seed could find no purchase."  Answer »
  • In Butterfly Effect there are 2 alternate endings. One is where evan tells kaylee to get lost when they met for the very first time the other is which?  Answer »

Movie Quizzes


No quizzes for Womb. Want to create one?

Recent News


No recent headlines. Got one?

Recent Lists


Most Popular Skin


No skins yet. Interested in creating one?