Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Much of the film is as strange and oddly beautiful as one of Arbus' own photographs, bold in its attempt to find new ways of cracking the biopic chestnut and sensitive in its portrayal of a 1950s woman who, like so many of her contemporaries, finds herself imprisoned in a "Good Housekeeping" nightmare.

Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves

The result is a revelatory, challenging and deeply affecting portrait, anchored by what may be Kidman's most profoundly moving performance to date.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Kidman brings her character to life with a fey, moth-to-the-flame enthrallment that's both touching and fascinating.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Purists will howl at the liberties Shainberg has taken with the facts, but there's a bravery to Fur, an uncompromising commitment to its narrow focus -- of one woman's creative birth -- that rhymes with Arbus's own artistic courage.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Yet whenever you get too irritated at Fur's pretensions, the remarkable acting of its two stars pulls you back in and keeps you watching.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Fur is that rare movie that's TOO understated, so quiet and deliberate that it effectively buries consuming passions.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

This is a Beauty & the Beast romance between Nicole Kidman and Chewbacca.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

If the only measure of Fur's achievement was in how well it conjures the fairy-tale mood of Arbus' most memorable photos, then it is a modest success. But as a chronicle of the turning point in an artist's creative life, it falls flat on its viewfinder.

Empire Angie Errigo

Far-out touches and liberal application of metaphor are compensated for by intensity and two mesmerising performances.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

This arty and moody account of her formation as an artist, as its subtitle declares, is basically invented. Its nerviness only pays off in a few details and in Nicole Kidman's resourcefulness.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

This Diane Arbus, as she's portrayed by a tremulous Nicole Kidman, radiates warmth and empathy that's nowhere to be seen in the work of the real Diane Arbus. Fur is intended to be a tribute to Arbus, but it's more a fancifully embroidered tapestry of wishful thinking.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Picture is impressively crafted and acted but far too narrowly and benignly conceived to satisfy even on its own terms.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

The tall, cool Kidman works hard to impersonate a woman possessed, but she's not the type of actress to fill in a role that hasn't been filled in on paper.

The New Yorker David Denby

Wilson and the director, Steven Shainberg, draw on Arbus's family and on many elements from her life and her art, only to turn the material into feeble nonsense.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

A misguided tribute to the woman his (Shainberg's) film identifies among "the greatest artists of the 20th century."

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Downey makes something lively, sexy and moving out of a role that's just a thin concept. But the movie feels like it's still in the darkroom.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Fur is a misfire by the talented people who four years ago gave us "Secretary," whose tongue-in-cheek approach might have served this film better, taking the edge off much of its pretensions.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Though sometimes boldly captivating, the movie is also occasionally pretentious and lurid simply for shock value.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Fur is a folly, though not a dishonorable one.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Fur starts stylishly, and confidently, but the film dwindles down to a chamber piece in a claustrophobic chamber. Enter at your own risk.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

The movie's considerable problems are not the fault of its dedicated star, Nicole Kidman. She does her job beautifully - which, come to think of it, may be something of a problem after all.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

In the end, the sheer obviousness of Shainberg and screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson's take on Diane Arbus' perverse determination to examine and document the forbidden overshadows even Kidman's beautifully modulated performance, which takes Diane from brittle neurosis to a vaguely predatory ingenuousness.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Fur does what an Arbus photograph never would -- it leaves no room to imagine and removes any reason for doubt.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

In theory, there's nothing wrong with this unorthodox approach to Arbus -- attempting to explain her from the inside out. (In its way, Harmony Korine's freakfest "Gummo" is a better Arbus movie.) The trouble is that Shainberg and Wilson don't connect their conceit to anything artistically enlightening, erotic, or truly deviant.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

Fiction can sometimes be used to access a deeper truth than mere fact, but in this case all it does is obscure and confuse a fascinating life story.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The result is this metabiography that says almost nothing about the great photographer's life or art.

Slate Dana Stevens

That's the best thing that can be said about Fur: It feels good when it's over, and if you see it with a smart friend, it's a blast to hash over afterward.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Problem: Kidman is the only one in the theater who is turned on. The rest of us are giggling.

Austin Chronicle Toddy Burton

Fur dares the viewer to look into the eyes of Kidman and Downey Jr. and not see a whimpering housewife with a crush on Chewbacca.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

It's as if a trumped-up biopic of Andy Warhol were to appear titled "Soup.''

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Shainberg reduces this most disturbing of all photographers to a portraitist of Halloween.