On top of the tried-and-true prison genre formula coupled with the misfit gang formula, Rupert Wyatt's "he Escapist flips everything on its ear by playing out in two timelines simultaneously.
80
Village Voice
Village Voice
A taut thriller that ends on a note of unexpected grace.
Hollywood used to make a fair number of films like The Escapist (sigh: remember grown-up dramas?), and it's a satisfying variation on a once-familiar theme.
It makes for an unexpectedly welcome form of dramatic escape: the character study breaking free from a hoary old movie genre.
60
The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
All of this mayhem keeps us watching, but it would be hard to describe the experience as pleasurable.
40
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
The splintered viewpoints help with the monotony, but from the taunting of new inmates to the cell-block sadist, we've gone through all this before, right down to the final twists.
38
New York PostKyle Smith
New York PostKyle Smith
It all leads nowhere. There are pull-the-rug-out endings, and then there are pull-the-floor-out endings. The Escapist leaves you standing on nothing, like Wile E. Coyote, wondering why you bothered to come this far.
30
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
All might have been forgiven were it not for a needlessly Shyamalanized ending that deserves to earn Wyatt at least 25 years for grand-theft cinema.