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Statement, The
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 32 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 3 votes
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Ronald Harwood
Brian Moore (novel)
Directed by: Norman Jewison
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 12, 2003
DVD: April 27, 2004
Running Time: 120 minutes, Color
Origin: Canada / France
Summary
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)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Moonstruck The Hurricane
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer 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...
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.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
There's a sensational, highly original performance by Swinton.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Premiere Peter Debruge
As a thriller, The Statement is relatively disappointing, but as a moral study, the movie proves far more promising.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
The film seems more an excuse to attack a target than an exercise in solid storytelling.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
Tedious "message movie" proves hunting war criminals amid right-wing Catholic conspirators can be plenty dull.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
As depicted here, the political story becomes convoluted and dramatically inert.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Variety Scott Foundas
Lackluster pic fails both as suspense and as character study.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Brit actors can't even be bothered to speak with French accents.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Never gels into the smart, tightly orchestrated cat-and-mouse game that it promises to be.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Harwood's screenplay obscures any sort of philosophical, religious, or historical considerations in favor of pulpy and faith-bruising sensationalism.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
