46
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 70Village VoicePete Vonder HaarVillage VoicePete Vonder HaarThe Calling breathes new life into a moribund genre by touching oft-ignored themes and offering a bit of introspection to go along with the obligatory slashed throats and biblical portents.
- 70Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinLos Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinThe Calling is an absorbing, solidly crafted procedural thriller with a terrific lead turn by Susan Sarandon.
- 67Entertainment WeeklyMelissa MaerzEntertainment WeeklyMelissa MaerzThe Calling shares a little too much with atmospheric TV mysteries like "The Killing" and "Broadchurch": the hard-living female detective, the cloudy weather, the small-town existentialism.
- 60New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNew York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanThere’s a potentially fascinating series waiting to be mined here, even if it is buried beneath bland visuals and a pedestrian script on the big-screen.
- 50The New York TimesBen KenigsbergThe New York TimesBen KenigsbergPreposterous as it is, The Calling remains stubbornly suspenseful until near the end.
- 40The DissolveScott TobiasThe DissolveScott TobiasIt could generously be referred to as a character study about a detective haunted by her past, and a case that forces her to confront that past in Biblical terms. It could less generously be referred to as a pseudo-spiritual thriller that tries to literalize scriptural mythos in the same bloody terms David Fincher’s Seven used to literalize the Seven Deadly Sins, only far less artfully.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThe Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckSuffering from its forced attempts at pseudo-religious profundity and its familiar depiction of a spiritually lost central character eventually finding salvation, The Calling is ultimately all too resistible.
- 38Slant MagazineNick PriggeSlant MagazineNick PriggeThe premise of faith-based assisted suicide as a motivating factor for a madman's killing spree is initially intriguing, but quickly revealed as solemn window dressing.
- Port Dundas remains snoozy and depopulated even when throats are cut and stomachs thrown to the sheepdogs, and so does the movie.
- 25RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoRogerEbert.comBrian TallericoColorful elements of “Fargo” and “Seven” blend into a bland beige in the mostly straight-to-video The Calling, a piece that almost miraculously finds a way to waste the prodigious talents of Susan Sarandon, Ellen Burstyn, and Donald Sutherland.