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King Is Alive, The

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 25 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Horror
Written by:
Anders Thomas Jensen
Kristian Levring
William Shakespeare (play King Lear)
Directed by: Kristian Levring
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 11, 2001
DVD: November 19, 2002
Running Time: 110 minutes, Color
Origin: Denmark / Sweden / USA
Summary
RATING: R for sexuality and language
Starring Miles Anderson, Romane Bohringer, David Bradley, David Calder, Bruce Davison, Brion James, Janet McTeer, and Jennifer Jason Leigh
Stranded in the heat of a barren African desert, eleven bus-passengers shelter in the remnants of an abandoned town. As rescue grows more remote by the day and anxiety deepens, an idea emerges: why not stage a play. However the choice of "King Lear" only manages to plunge this disparate group of travellers into turmoil as they struggle to overcome both nature's wrath and their own mortality. (IFC Films)
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...
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Janet McTeer displays Amazonian power while Jennifer Jason Leigh tears into her role as a high maintenance creature with a ferocity that leaves little room for her usual acting tics.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
The cast, working in conditions that appear to have been only slightly less dire than those portrayed in the film, work together in a grim, convincing improvisatory rhythm.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
To some, this will seem the height of aesthetic experimentation; to others, the most unendurable arty hogwash.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
Isn't very pretty despite its extraordinary look. In fact, the film is downright queasy and unsettling.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
It's an excellent fusion of subject and style.
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It doesn't make the slightest effort to cater to conventional appetites. But the more you appreciate what they're trying to do, the more you like it.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder
Stands as a successful cinematic experiment and a gripping -- though a little too long -- study of humanity's most primitive instincts.
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Distinguished less by its elements of melodrama and psychodrama than by its intense acting and the vivid immediacy of Levring's powerful imagery.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Forget the bug-eating, cow-spearing and one-upsmanship of TV's "Survivor." The real results of isolation and deprivation unfold in The King is Alive: madness, suicide and murder.
Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan
Fascinating and strangely involving piece.
Boston Globe Jay Carr
Sinks under the weight of its ever more inescapably apparent contrivance, and its forced parallels to ''Lear.''
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Intrigues mainly for its spare style and brittle, sweat-soaked performances.
TV Guide Ken Fox
wWhat doesn't entirely succeed as convincing psychodrama makes one hell of an acting exercise (it's great fun to see great actors purposely mangle the Bard's immortal words), and Levring's cast -- McTeer in particular -- run with it.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Stylish and gritty, The King Is Alive lacks the impact of revelation that might have made the journey worth taking.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
The most obvious casualty ends up being Jennifer Jason Leigh, an actress known for her fearless choices, who is literally pissed on for her trouble.
Chicago Reader Ted Shen
Most of the confrontations are shot in close-up, dragging us into the melee as the grungy-looking actors spit out their venomous dialogue.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
Either you like your movies to be, well, movie-like: imitations of life, with musical accompaniment and artificial lighting and tracking shots and looped dialogue; or you like them to be re-creations of life, sans the artifice. The King Is Alive clearly falls into the latter camp.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
A deeper problem in The King Is Alive is an almost total absence of spontaneity.
LA Weekly Ernest Hardy
The tedium of the situation is felt by the audience, but too often in the wrong way: We don't empathize so much as suffer through the movie.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Luke Y. Thompson
The prettiest Dogme film to date may be the one that has the least to say.
Washington Post Desson Thomson
Becomes a strung-together collection of interesting, semi-interesting, boring and sometimes embarrassing (seemingly improvised) moments from the cast.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Wesley Morris
Builds into a shapeless riff on the existentialist misery of company.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Michael Atkinson
Endearingly pretentious -- as if it swallowed a thick brick of Beckett and can't pass the uncooperative Beckettian stool.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
