What's so remarkable about the happiness the film brings is its simplicity. full review

You watch it remembering the days when you should have walked but simply had to run, and when you believed that, if you wished hard enough, your dead pet just might come back again. full review

What a kind and wise movie this is. full review

[The] film is built around performances by two real-life brothers who are as unaffected, spirited and lovable as I can imagine, and one of the pleasures of "I Wish" is simply spending time with them. full review

Transforms the commonplace into the extraordinary. full review

It's about the wonders of everyday life, and of childhood imagination. full review

The sort of small film of real consequence that, as a kid, I remember seeing and completely losing myself in: That was my life. full review

A wistful heartbreaker from the Japanese master of quiet observation, Hirokazu Kore-eda. full review

It's an adult movie about children that feels made from the inside out. full review

"I Wish" is a wonderful adventure film that's no less thrilling for its modest scale, and a film whose emotional power and intelligence sneak up on you. full review

There is a lot of hope in the air in "I Wish," but the film never feels sappy. full review

Whenever its children are on screen, lighted up with joy or dimmed by hard adult truths, the film burns bright. full review

This wise and funny film, in Japanese with English subtitles, works small miracles in depicting the pivotal moment when kids turn from the wishfulness of childhood into shaping the world for themselves. full review

More often than not Kore-eda's technique creates space for something truly special in a film: kids talking like kids. full review

How does Hirokazu Kore-eda do it? His films are so casually infused with graceful realism, they make other movies feel painfully stilted and false. full review

I Wish makes us feel like we are watching these kids discover each new sensory pleasure of youth for the first time, or that we're experiencing it ourselves. full review

With almost supernaturally effortless grace, Kore-eda has connected the film's every element, each one pregnant with beauty and meaning... full review

You can contemplate the wonder in these glowing young faces without feeling as if you're on an intravenous drip of corn syrup. full review

This tale of two elementary-school brothers plotting to end the physical separation their parents' divorce has forced on them effortlessly pulls off the naturalism and charm desired from material that might have easily curdled into calculated preciousness. full review