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100Stunningly smart, genuinely disturbing film.
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91Bean's commitment to serious theological examination is exciting, Gosling's performance is riveting, and this fiery and imperfect feature shines as a demonstration of independent filmmaking at its most uncompromising.
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91A deep and extraordinary film that isn't afraid to look evil in the face -- or, for that matter, to acknowledge that evil can be more complicated and even attractive than we'd want to admit. It's very, very difficult to watch, but you shouldn't miss it.
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90I thought I might have seen everything I needed to see about neo-Nazi skinheads in "Romper Stomper" and "American History X". Not only was I in for a surprise, but newcomer Ryan Gosling gives every bit as stunning a performance as did Russell Crowe and Ed Norton in those two films, and then some.
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90Unique and unforgettable.
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90I confess I don't fully understand Danny's (or the movie's) zigs and zags, but I was glued to the thing anyway -- it has an inexplicable inner logic -- and I admire Bean for refusing to settle into any easy groove.
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90What it's about is also what it requires for proper appreciation -- the ability of the human mind to hold, and even cherish, diametrically opposite thoughts.
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90Persuasive, intelligent, and provocative.
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88One of the year's most thought-provoking, hard-hitting films, gutsily opening up a subject rarely done with this kind of all-out chutzpah.
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80After its electric opening -- one of the few occasions where Bean advances his case cinematically, showing rather than just telling -- the film rapidly assumes the shape of a 100-minute debate, as Danny argues against the Jews and, in the same breath, for them.
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80Bean has built a bonfire of contradictions and the ensuing conflagration illuminates a bit of the world.
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80There are a couple of technical rough spots, but this daring film challenges most widely held notions about religious conviction while providing a complex portrait of an identity crisis that's run amok and a good mind that's jumped the tracks.
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78The film's greatest strength undeniably lies in Gosling's revelatory portrayal of Danny.
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75The film's anti-Semitism is articulate but wrong, and the conflict between what the hero says and what he believes (or does not want to believe) is at the very center of the story.
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75It is a challenging film, if not always a narratively cohesive one.
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75An amazing and incendiary movie that dives straight into the rough waters of contradiction.
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The artistry of the storytelling, the visual approach and Gosling's performance in The Believer make us believe that Danny's path was the only choice for him, a truly disturbing and fascinating revelation.
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75Ryan Gosling's riveting as a neo-Nazi who was raised in Jewish faith
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75The film is so full of ideas and so dense that its narrative splinters, moving tangentially, and ultimately is weighed down by its rant and rhetoric.
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70If nothing else, The Believer trusts that faith can not only withstand a little skepticism, but also gather strength and meaning from it.
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70Admirably ambitious and utterly unsparing, but as credible as the arc of Danny's odyssey is in itself, the all-important need to evoke a profound sense of the enigmatic and paradoxical in relation to Danny's fate has eluded Bean.
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This willfully provocative film portrait offers lots of raging, vulgarity and shock but little insight into the character's psychopathology.
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70Those who see it at fests, and in carefully tailored specialized release, will be struck by the adroitness with which it addresses touchy issues, as well as by the outstanding performance of Ryan Gosling in the difficult leading role.
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63Gosling's performance is a stunner, although the story-telling is otherwise pedestrian. It is the movie's blessing and curse that it does not shy away from Danny's murderous, inexplicable contradictions — or explain them.
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60Flawed but undeniably provocative and brilliantly acted by Gosling.
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50Treads an awfully thin line between the provocative and the exploitative.
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The movie's shift into an implausible thriller magnifies its lack of character development. But Gosling gives an impassioned performance throughout.
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20A bad movie -- really a terrible movie -- with a daring idea behind it. And it's had the sort of crummy luck that, no matter what you think of it, can get you steamed.
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