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45
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71
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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65
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xx
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43
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69
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Death and the Maiden
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 19 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Mystery | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Ariel Dorfman (also play)
Rafael Yglesias
Directed by: Roman Polanski
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 23, 1994
DVD: June 3, 2003
Running Time: 103 minutes, Color
Origin: UK / USA / France
Summary
RATING: R for strong language including descriptions of violent situations
Starring Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, Stuart Wilson, Krystia Mova, Jonathan Vega, Rodolphe Vega, Gilberto Cortés, and Jorge Cruz
A chance encounter enables a woman to turn the tables on the sadistic doctor who tortured her 15 years earlier. (New Line Cinema)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Chinatown Oliver Twist Repulsion (re-release) The Ninth Gate The Pianist The Tenant (re-release)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It's an immensely successful movie - and far and away the most emotionally charged, psychologically uneasy and diabolically suspenseful thriller Polanski's made since his heyday. [27 Jan 1995, p. 26]
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Death and the Maiden doesn't always escape its contraption origins, but it ends with one of the most honest-and poetic- reckonings of human evil in modern movies. It's Polanski braying at his own bitter moon.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
As vivid and suspenseful as Roman Polanski has made this claustrophobic tale of a torture victim turning the tables on her putative tormentor, one is still left with a film in which each character represents a mouthpiece for an ideology.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Death and the Maiden is a streamlined razor-ride of a movie: taut, riveting, and a psychological horror show that will leave nail-marks in your palms for days afterwards.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)
The material is well served by director Roman Polanski, who knows well how to instill a subtle, claustrophobic sense of dread in an audience and has put together a rather elegant potboiler.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Caryn James
Mr. Polanski's brilliance with the camera turns Ariel Dorfman's well-meaning but pretentious play about human rights into a harrowing experience.
Read Full Review >Empire Kim Newman
Even by their high standards, the performances of Weaver and Kingsley here are impressive, and Polanski ratchetts up the tension nicely. A chilling and thought-provoking piece.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Death and the Maiden is all about acting. In other hands, even given the same director, this might have been a dreary slog.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Polanski, working from a fluid script by Dorfman and Rafael Yglesias ("Fearless"), gives the story its due. He creates an atmosphere of claustrophobic tension to rival his "Knife in the Water" and "Repulsion".
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Polanski directs the film without a wasting a moment. The occasional humor does nothing to relieve tension but, as in a Hitchcock picture, has a way of increasing it.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Staff (Not Credited)
Death and the Maiden never fulfills the evocative promise of those initial frames...Beyond that, you have to settle for a craftsman working with more precision than inspiration. But Polanski at half-speed is still hard to beat. [27 Jan 1995, pg. E.1]
Salon.com Charles Taylor
It's an exceptionally intelligent and controlled piece of direction, and for once Polanski didn't hide his emotions in a death's-head grin. The movie is raw and passionate and unresolved in a way that's unique among his work.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Even though he's psychologically expanded his source, the material is a bit too schematic to work as much more than a scaled-down thriller.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Sigourney Weaver isn't quite up to her most demanding scenes, but Ben Kingsley is expertly enigmatic as the stranger, and Stuart Wilson is excellent as the husband who doesn't know whom to believe. [27 Jan 1995, p. 14]
San Francisco Examiner Scott Rosenberg
There's not much mystery here; there's only one outcome that could possibly make dramatic sense. And once you realize that, there's not much to do besides watch some very adept performers chew on their lines.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Hal Hinson
Polanski stages some lovely moments, particularly Paulina's candlelit dinner in her closet. But he also undercuts the high-minded ideals of Dorfman's original by exposing its radical chic pretentions.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Howe
Polanski touch -- apart from a little suspense here and there -- is limited. And the story, which Ariel Dorfman adapted from his radical-chic play, is too contrived and smug to really hold.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Polanski abandons all attempts at subtlety. The resulting production ends up far too heavy-handed to be considered powerful drama.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
Weaver's overacting and Dorfman's bold-faced dialogue oversell the scenario. Only Kingsley's sly turn gives Death And The Maiden any real feeling of disquiet.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.7 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jay H gave it a7:
Intense and compelling, excellent direction by Roman Polanski. Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley are amazing. Never a dull moment, very fast pacing. Fascinating story. I was not fully satisfied by the ending, but not sure if there would be any better way
Marty G gave it a6:
The issue is very real but this movie treatment is too obvious in its plot development and the ending just fades away. Weaver is not convincing, her husband has no spine, they have no chemistry. Kingsley makes it watchable.
Jared C. gave it a4:
I couldn't wait tell this movie came out on DVD, until I found nothing in the store but boring old 1940 movies. Two years later I found it in a store, but that was a time that I didn't have much taste or appetite for that kind of genre. But I watched it and I didn't mind it but could need some work on a few things.
