"Mike Leigh's pointed drama concerns two couples, one Catholic and one Protestant, living in Belfast. Although near neighbors, they have but one thing in common: the wives are expecting their first babies, which will be born in the same hospital on the same day. From this simple premise Leigh and his wonderful actors have fashioned a painfully accurate portrait of the divisions of Northern Ireland. Acting, as in every Leigh film, is beyond praise, and the on-location camerawork in the troubled, war-torn city brings the tragedy of Northern Ireland vividly alive." David Stratton, Variety