Quitting
Metascore
61 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 19 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 19
  3. Negative: 1 out of 19
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  1. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    100
    The total effect is mesmerizing, an eye-opening tour of modern Beijing culture in a journey of rebellion, retreat into oblivion and return.
  2. New Times (L.A.)
    Reviewed by: David Ehrenstein
    90
    Beautifully made, deeply upsetting drama.
    All this critic's reviews
  3. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Patrick Z. McGavin
    88
    Daring and beautifully made, Zhang Yang's Quitting plays like a Chinese "Rebel Without a Cause."
  4. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    80
    Daring and complex. At 112 minutes, it might be 15 minutes too long, but this is not enough to detract from its impact as a probing and universal contemporary drama.
  5. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    80
    With Quitting, he (Zhang) has removed sentimentality from the theme and presented it with unflinching honesty, a quality he shares with his fearless cast.
  6. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    75
    If only "reality" TV was as realistic as Quitting.
  7. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Edward Guthmann
    75
    It's downbeat material and it tends to drag a bit, but Jia's performance is so unsparing and intense -- and the film so compassionate and chaste in its approach to a life lost and recovered -- that Quitting ultimately satisfies.
  8. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    75
    Quitting begins to seem intriguing in concept. Now comes the best news: It's just as compelling in execution.
  9. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Tim Merrill
    70
    Particularly wrenching in its depiction of the father-son relationship.
  10. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    63
    It is a brave experiment, based on life and using actors who play themselves, but it buys into the whole false notion that artists are somehow too brilliant to be sober.
  11. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    60
    The entire cast is extraordinarily good -- many of them are, after all, actors by trade -- but throughout, Zhang is keen to remind his audience that this is only a dramatization.
  12. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    60
    Because Quitting admits its basic falsehood up front, the film is never emotionally affecting, but Jia's participation in this confrontation of his past shows remarkable courage and honesty, especially when his behavior doesn't inspire much sympathy.
  13. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    50
    An intriguing idea undermined by a lackluster follow-through.
  14. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: John Patterson
    50
    Whether Quitting will prove absorbing to American audiences is debatable: After all, it's not like we don't have enough rehab stories of our own, and Jia often comes across as a sullen, unreachable brat.
  15. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    50
    Alternately grueling and soporific, Quitting is a movie about addiction that demands the viewer also give something up.
  16. Variety
    Reviewed by: Derek Elley
    50
    What gives Quitting its freshness is its setting in a country that often denies it has such problems and the decision to anchor the film strongly within the Chinese family fabric.
  17. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    50
    If Quitting isn't worthy of affection exactly, it's worthy of respect.
  18. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    50
    Unfortunately Jia --a rather limited actor, judging from the movies excerpted here -- has trouble either articulating or projecting the existential crisis that ultimately landed him in a mental institution, which leaves the emotional center of the film inert.
  19. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    30
    Unfortunately, the experience of actually watching the movie is less compelling than the circumstances of its making.

User Reviews

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User Score
9.0 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. PatC.
    9
    A movie devoid of imaginative devices, but otherwise fully formed. A fine story, applicable in all cultures, of a youth asserting his own devices, but finding they can't improve on a sense of responsibility to his family.… Full Review »
  2. RianneM.
    10
    This is such a beautiful movie, the music, the drama.
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