The Dying Gaul
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Metascore
62 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 23 Critics What's this?

User Score
6.6 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 10 Ratings

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0 out of 10
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  • Starring: Campbell Scott, Patricia Clarkson, Peter Sarsgaard
  • Summary: A fiercely original psychological thriller, The Dying Gaul is a tale of lust, power, corruption, betrayal and revenge set in the seductive world of the Hollywood elite. (Strand Releasing)

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 23
  3. Negative: 3 out of 23
  1. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    90
    Mr. Sarsgaard gives the riskiest screen performance of his career. Save perhaps for Sean Penn's outbursts in "Dead Man Walking" and "Mystic River," no actor in a recent American film has delivered as explosive a depiction of a man emotionally blasted apart.
  2. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Bob Westal
    80
    The Dying Gaul is Craig Lucas's film directing debut, and it's impressive. The film never feels one bit like a stage adaptation.
  3. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    60
    Entertaining if cornball, lacking the cold-eyed nastiness of something like Mike Nichols's "Closer," The Dying Gaul is tricked out with strident montage sequences and tremulous Steve Reich music. It's already drowning in an icky sea of language when Lucas makes a stretch for Greek tragedy and sends the whole Malibu playhouse abruptly crashing down.
  4. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    38
    These are three characters in search of a moral pulse.

See all 23 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 9
  3. Negative: 1 out of 9
  1. olivaV.
    10
    One of the most original and emotionally scary film i have seen in a long time. a wonderful accomplishment that everyone should see!
  2. SpankA.
    8
    Flawless, macabre, Polanski-esque.
  3. ChadShiira
    6
    This film is the oddest thing. The three principal actors in "The Dying Gaul" play such appealing characters, but then they inexplicably stop being appealing after the set-up. The script starts to break down when the film makes its transition from a spot-on look at how Hollywood thinks to a psychological drama that has its talented actors trying to prove the old adage that people would pay good money just to see them read from a telephone book (in this case, their dialogue from a chat-room). [***SPOILERS***] Sometimes "The Dying Gaul" just doesn't make sense. In one scene, Robert (Peter Saarsgard) seems to have outed his tormentor, but in the next scene, he's caught off-guard and floored by a revelation we think is already established. When you get right down to it, Robert is pretty stupid, or rather; the screenplay made him that way. Robert gives his internet stalker pertinent information that could be used against him, in which he seems to have forgotten, when trying to identify the true identity of his chat-room poltergeist. This is a pity, because the opening scenes are almost as fun as Robert Altman's "The Player".… Expand
  4. JeffM.
    4
    The acting is to die for. The house on the cliff is to die for. Peter Sarsgaard is to die for. But after the first third the plot rends into hole like Boston's Big Dig. Go, see it, really, if you've been curious. Then talk about other things.… Expand

See all 9 User Reviews

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