58
Metascore
27 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Time OutDavid FearTime OutDavid FearAll ye searching for Primal Fear redux, abandon hope. The character-driven drama he (Curran) offers viewers instead is something far more complex, cracked and unique for an American movie boasting big-name stars: an unblinking glare into the abyss.
- 75Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsChicago TribuneMichael PhillipsGenuinely odd in its mixture of bluntness and indirection, screenwriter Angus MacLachlan's study in biblical temptation is saved from its own heavy-handedness by a fine quartet of actors.
- 70New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNew York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNorton, too, keeps us guessing, though his pseudo-tough-guy line readings (and cornrowed hair) are initially distracting. But his scenes with De Niro -- who fills every twitch or glance with Jack's long-buried guilt -- are the guts of the movie.
- 67The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasAt its best, the film works as a morally freighted film noir, with Jovovich particularly good as a breathy femme fatale who seduces De Niro with a mere change in inflection.
- 60Boxoffice MagazineBarbara GoslawskiBoxoffice MagazineBarbara GoslawskiStone is highly charged and vibrant, and pits Edward Norton against Robert De Niro for two utterly electrifying performances.
- 50VarietyVarietyThough nearly sabotaged by the ridiculous sexual subplot at its center, this soul-searching drama works best at the character level, couching insights about sin and forgiveness under the guise of conventional genre entertainment.
- 50L.A. WeeklyL.A. WeeklyAt odds with its own lofty and base instincts, Stone ultimately channels neither compellingly.
- 42Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumMilla Jovovich slinks cartoonishly as Stone's seductive wife, on a mission to compromise the lawman. Lordy.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThere is not a credible moment in this overly calculated melodrama.
- 40This is a film about people who are lost, and the filmmakers draw a direct line between their characters' existential wanderings and the religious obsessions they find for themselves.