Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes

The Well Digger's Daughter

Play trailer Poster for The Well Digger's Daughter 2012 1h 47m Romance Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
88% Tomatometer 41 Reviews 75% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
A Frenchman feels torn between honor and his love for his daughter when she gets into trouble with the wealthy son of a shopkeeper.

Critics Reviews

View More
Tom Long Detroit News 10/12/2012
B
"The Well-Digger's Daughter" isn't a mind-blower; it's not supposed to be. It's a light lunch with an old friend whom it's good to see again. Go to Full Review
Drew Hunt Chicago Reader 10/04/2012
Auteuil's direction is a lot like his acting -- well-mannered and likable, yet staid and ultimately inconsequential. Go to Full Review
Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times 10/04/2012
3.5/4
To call "The Well Digger's Daughter" an old-fashioned film is to pay it a compliment. Here is a love story embedded in traditional values. Go to Full Review
Aaron Pinkston Battleship Pretension 03/10/2021
Overall, The Well-Digger's Daughter doesn't entrust any great future as a filmmaker for Auteuil, but it provides enough old-fashioned entertainment to please on the most minor levels. Go to Full Review
PJ Nabarro Patrick Nabarro 10/31/2019
3/5
A thoroughly well-told, if ultimately fairly slight, tale of family honour lost and regained in a France around the time of the Second World War. Go to Full Review
Nicholas Bell IONCINEMA.com 07/25/2019
This humdrum Thomas Hardy narrative knock-off is as memorable as the holes its main character digs in the ground. Go to Full Review
Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View More
Test T @TestTest1 02/04/2024 I watched this on DVD recently. I knew very little about it, except what was on the cover, and the story seemed interesting. I had not noticed that the film is in French with English subtitles, and as the movie started my heart sank! I'm really not a fan of subtitles, as I find them very distracting and often struggle to keep up. As I suspected, this is a good story vibrantly told using well developed characters set in beautiful French scenery. The cinematography is excellent making the film a pleasure to watch. So I battled on reading the subtitles until the end, and thoroughly enjoyed it. One thing I did notice was that some of the French dialogue seemed a bit odd when translated into English, and some of the things I found quite outrageous may have been intended to be humorous. I also thought that the French seem to put far too much emphasis on trivial matters by making long speeches which seemed out of place, but again this could be a cultural tranlation issue. Over all the film was very good and well worth watching! See more 07/27/2022 The greatest 01 hour: and 47 minutes ever!!!!!!!!!!!!! See more Ken R 07/10/2022 Quite a surprise to find a film filled with all the human elements that make life special, especially from a contemporary moviemaker. A sterling job in all categories from Screenplay writer, director, actor, Daniel Auteuil - breathing believable life into a re-make of Marcel Pagnol's original 1940 classic. Marvelous performances from all concerned make even the elements and situations that could have seemed clichéd fully believable and alive. Gorgeous location cinematography from veteran D.O.P. Jean-Françoise Robin, complimented with a thoughtfully melodic music score from Award winner Alexandre Desplat - make this a winner for audiences able to recognize the hallmarks of classic storytelling. No explosions, needless sex scenes, or car chases, just humanity from days gone by showcased in glowing style. See more 05/05/2015 Loved all the characters and thank goodness there was a happy ending! See more 12/29/2014 I really enjoyed the story of a proud man dealing with the shame of a daughter who winds up paying dearly for a single mistake. This was a well done film, with many tender moments as well as some that were hard to take. The pacing was deliberate, but never dragged, the characters were fleshed out and not merely caricatures, and the cinematography was sensuous. There was a lot to like here, although the ending dipped perilously close to smarmy. See more 09/26/2014 Wonderfully old-fashioned and beautifully filmed, The Well-Digger's Daughter is two hours spent in Provence with honest and decent characters. Top-notch acting and a great melodramatic storyline make you glad you watched this movie. See more Read all reviews
The Well Digger's Daughter

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW
Wuthering Heights 69% 47% Wuthering Heights Watchlist Water for Elephants 60% 70% Water for Elephants Watchlist Felix and Meira 78% 62% Felix and Meira Watchlist Little Box of Sweets 50% 67% Little Box of Sweets Watchlist Miss Julie 54% 24% Miss Julie Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis A Frenchman feels torn between honor and his love for his daughter when she gets into trouble with the wealthy son of a shopkeeper.
Director
Daniel Auteuil
Producer
Alain Sarde
Screenwriter
Daniel Auteuil
Distributor
Kino Lorber
Genre
Romance, Drama
Original Language
Canadian French
Release Date (Theaters)
Jul 20, 2012, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Jan 25, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA)
$385.4K
Runtime
1h 47m