Imelda
  • Release Date: Jun 9, 2004
Metascore
69 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
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  1. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    88
    Throughout, Mrs. Marcos comes across as an elitist, insulated against real life by wealth and power -- yet one who truly believes she is misunderstood and has done nothing wrong.
  2. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    88
    Remarkable documentary.
  3. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Pete Vonder Haar
    80
    Eminently successful at portraying the former first lady's flaws because it allows her to describe them herself.
  4. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Carina Chocano
    80
    Diaz has said that she hopes the film asks the right questions. But it seems, in this case, that the questions are leading - and rightly so. Marcos is given all the tape she needs to hang herself.
  5. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Allison Benedikt
    75
    When a filmmaker can get Imelda Marcos, once one of the 10 richest women in the world, to pull out a Sharpie and draw a Pac-Man, she's alright by me.
  6. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    She emerges as an energetic, narcissistic, and totally self-deluded woman.
  7. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Ruthe Stein
    75
    Fascinating and impressively balanced documentary.
  8. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    75
    Imelda is at its most acridly useful when comparing the former first lady's recollections with others' less sanguine memories.
  9. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: James Greenberg
    70
    Captures a complex and contradictory world figure. Imelda is by turns humorous, insightful and infuriating.
  10. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    70
    When she's not babbling about the weird symbological system that rules her personal cosmos Imelda is an entertaining storyteller, vividly describing a life that became a national embarrassment and a camp legend.
  11. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Jon Strickland
    70
    Diaz leaves us unsure about whether we should pity or revile Imelda, a woman alternately charmingly childlike, shockingly remote and, ultimately, as she stands over the waxed corpse of her husband, pathetic.
  12. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    70
    For the fascinating character study Imelda, Ramona S. Diaz was given a month's access to the former first lady, who supplies so many bizarre equivocations that it's hard to tell whether her actions were malicious or merely delusional.
  13. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    70
    As a personality study Imelda is a devastating portrait of how power begets self-delusion. It must be said, however, that through it all Mrs. Marcos exudes considerable charm and even a flickering sense of humor.
  14. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    70
    But even though Marcos, in this film, provides enough material for a few hundred giggles and head-shakings, she also shows a pathetically human side.
  15. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    70
    Engrossing documentary.
  16. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    63
    There's no question she's a smart cookie, but as she herself says, "There's a thin line between smart and crazy."
  17. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    60
    A balanced, evenhanded film about a subject who has always managed to provoke intemperate reactions.
  18. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    50
    Entertaining as it is, Imelda seems all too willing to take her at her word.

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