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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

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83
U2 3D
82
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82
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82
Frozen River
82
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81
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
79
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
78
I've Loved You So Long
77
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
76
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75
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73
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70
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Extreme Movie
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Statement, The
Sony Pictures Classics
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for violence
Starring
Michael Caine,
Tilda Swinton,
Charlotte Rampling,
Alan Bates,
Jeremy Northam,
CiarĂ¡n Hinds,
John Neville, Matt Craven,
and
Edward Petherbridge
At the end of World War II, many of those involved were prosecuted for war crimes. Some got away. Until now. (Sony Pictures Classics)
| GENRE(S): |
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Ronald Harwood
Brian Moore (novel)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Norman Jewison
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: April 27, 2004
Video: April 27, 2004
Theatrical: December 12, 2003
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
120 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Canada / France |

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...
90
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Has the hallmarks of a top-notch Jewison production -- splendid performances, especially from leads Michael Caine, Tilda Swinton and Jeremy Northam, a pulse-quickening pace and production values that establish story and character within a distinct environment.

75
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
There's a sensational, highly original performance by Swinton.

75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Howard Shapiro
Partly because of Caine and partly because of meticulous work by veteran director Norman Jewison, The Statement is a fiction done so effectively, it rings true -- even slick lines that may otherwise be rancid.

67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
The resulting political thriller is more intriguing than riveting, flattened by Jewison's plodding direction and distracting use of British actors to play French characters.

63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
Never comes together as a persuasive whole. Instead of moral complexity, we get an overfamiliar pursuit tale and investigation story. Worse, the movie fails the first test of a thriller: It lacks any significant suspense.

63
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
The Statement is an older man's film, and compassion is one of its strengths; Jewison and Caine make us feel pity and terror for the victims as well.

63
Premiere
Peter Debruge
As a thriller, The Statement is relatively disappointing, but as a moral study, the movie proves far more promising.

60
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Not quite a thriller and not quite a character study, though with elements of both, the film is limited by its ambiguous relation to history.

60
Empire
Olly Richards
Positioned as a tense political thriller, Jewison's film is high on the (somewhat confusing) politics but falls a little short on the thrills.

50
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
The film seems more an excuse to attack a target than an exercise in solid storytelling.

50
Portland Oregonian
M. E. Russell
Tedious "message movie" proves hunting war criminals amid right-wing Catholic conspirators can be plenty dull.

50
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
As depicted here, the political story becomes convoluted and dramatically inert.

50
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
I don't require that a movie have a message, but in a message movie it is helpful to know what the message is.

50
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
In Jewison's hands, this cat-and-mouse game plays like third-rate John Le Carré, treading lethargically over high-minded intrigue that mixes fact, fiction, and unlikely speculation in dubious relation to the historical record.

50
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Jewison dodges the issues in the script by Ronald Harwood (The Pianist) to focus on cat-and-mouse chases that kill interest.

50
USA Today
Mike Clark
For a story that centers on intrigue in high places, the few even halfway-grabbing scenes come from the mild if unexplored sexual tension between co-Caine sleuthers Tilda Swinton and Jeremy Northam.

50
Variety
Scott Foundas
Lackluster pic fails both as suspense and as character study.

50
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
Seems tailor-made for an intelligent thriller in the Graham Greene mode, but in Jewison's hands, the dragnet that closes in on Brossard is lackadaisical, and the larger political overtones--especially concerning the complicity of the Catholic church in aiding Nazis--are spelled out over and over.

50
Village Voice
Michael Atkinson
Ends up second-guessing its own high-minded strivings, not trustful enough of its audience to be sophisticated about history and ethics, and not pulpy enough to keep us awake.

50
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
A tolerable thriller.

50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Caine puts all his formidable talent into pulling this off, but Jewison's directing and Roland Harwood's screenplay (based on Brian Moore's novel) provide a regrettably shaky foundation for him to build on.

50
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
As much as these wonderful actors invest their performances with psychological nuance, their efforts go mostly for naught in a movie that gives character development a distant back seat to the grinding mechanics of its formulaic plot.

50
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Films can't just sound good on paper; they have to be effective on the screen, and in that form, The Statement is disappointing.

50
New York Post
Megan Lehmann
Overripe dialogue and a fevered score fail to inject any real tension, and the accentless English spoken throughout a film set entirely in France is ludicrous and jarring.

42
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
If any actor could reveal the squirmy soul of a war criminal, it's Caine, so it feels like a cheat when The Statement gives him nothing to portray but self-condemnation.

40
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Norman Jewison's honorable but stodgy exercise in ethical outrage, based on Brian Moore's acclaimed 1996 novel, fairly aches to be called a thinking man's thriller.

40
Film Threat
Mark Sells
The film makes an honest effort to present this story as intelligent and thought provoking, but ultimately falls flat because it doesnt provide enough reasons to care.

30
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
Brit actors can't even be bothered to speak with French accents.

30
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
Never gels into the smart, tightly orchestrated cat-and-mouse game that it promises to be.

30
Austin Chronicle
Steve Davis
By the time The Statement comes to its inevitable conclusion, you'll be hard pressed to remember much about it, sadly enough. In other words, The Statement doesn't make much of one.

30
Salon.com
Charles Taylor
A stiff, clunky piece of work that never builds up urgency or tension. The script, by playwright Ronald Harwood, who wrote the script for Roman Polanski's "The Pianist," is close to atrocious.

25
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
Harwood's screenplay obscures any sort of philosophical, religious, or historical considerations in favor of pulpy and faith-bruising sensationalism.


The average user rating for this movie is 4.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
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