Where Is Kyra?

"Where is Kyra?" is a small story - there's much about its main character that we'll never know - and a terribly sad one. But it's a remarkable showcase for Pfeiffer, who'll break your heart in every scene.

Pfeiffer is good - she's always good, and raw, and effective - but watching her here is like seeing her under glass from a block away.

This woman may be lost to the world, but in Dosunmu's quietly shattering vision, she is also unexpectedly, triumphantly found.

Gosh, but it's good to have Michelle Pfeiffer back.

Picoult's screenplay is frustratingly slight, never evolving beyond...one note.

The script, by Darci Picoult, does little to illuminate thoughts, plans, and lives; the banal dialogue is delivered at a slow and pause-riddled pace, as if to infuse it with meaning and emotion that it doesn't contain.

Although it's opening act suggests Michelle Pfeiffer going mumble-core, Where is Kyra? is actually a far more substantial work than initially suggested - even if it's debatable whether or not it would be as impactful with another actress in the lead.

Isn't so much about Kyra's fling with criminal behavior as it is about a world in which a decent person can fall from safety to destitution in just a few weeks' time.

Anchored around terrific performances from Pfeiffer and Kiefer Sutherland, Where is Kyra deserves to be applauded for everything it does right.

Where Is Kyra? is an unorthodox comeback vehicle for Pfeiffer-the film is truly a total bummer, the rare example of cinema that is both beautifully made and 100 percent joyless. But it remains noteworthy, and maybe even important...

... occasionally borders on pretentious, it crafts a powerful portrait of socioeconomic despair without turning heavy-handed.

Watching Michelle Pfeiffer's enactment of this woman as a hyperaware and yet disempowered character urges me to more carefully observe this world of so many virtually invisible and needy individuals.