All but a silent movie, Frédéric Fonteyne’s strikingly atmospheric film — adapted by Philippe Blasband and Marion Hänsel from a 1937 novel — relies on the extraordinarily mobile face of Emmanuelle Devos to express the pain of a woman who has no language for her inner turmoil. Were Hitchcock alive, he’d surely claim the ripe and faintly sinister Devos as his muse.(…) In homage to the great French working-class dramas of the interwar years, cinematographer Virginie Saint-Martin brings an austere, painterly beauty (the lighting was inspired by Vermeer) to this intensely physical evocation of a woman with no resources beyond her tenacious loyalty to her family.
Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly

What compels the viewer throughout is both the power of the acting -- especially by Devos, but by the other principals as well -- and the beauty of the images. "Gilles' Wife" exposes the ugly lot of some married women in pre-World War II France, but it's also about a spiritual journey and the unexpected heroism of the everyday. The ending is a stunner. Like those '30 classics it suggests, "Gilles' Wife" seduces us with true cinematic magic: rich characters, great acting and that rapturous old French blend of realism and theatricality.
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

Devos is especially adept at conveying raw emotion without saying a word. Painterly cinematography by Virginie Saint-Martin adds to the film's magic.
V.A. Musetto, New York Post