The Embalmer
Metascore
71 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
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  1. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    80
    Skillfully directed and adroitly acted.
  2. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    80
    From start to finish Garrone charges The Embalmer, a richly visual film, with an effective ambiguity and sense of foreboding.
  3. Variety
    Reviewed by: David Rooney
    80
    Director Matteo Garrone's measured approach and soulfully humane focus combine to dignify the characters, allowing the tale of solitude, longing and sorrow to inch quietly under the viewer's skin.
  4. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    80
    Garrone's movie finds a disconcerting niche between edgy character thriller and black comedy.
  5. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    80
    A bummer, but one that manages to stick to its depraved convictions until the strange and bitter end.
  6. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    Masterful at concealing its true nature and surprising us with the turns of the story.
  7. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    75
    The movie, a keen look at the way passion unravels and obsession destroys, creates a black mood, a sense of truth and an enduring chill that stay with you.
  8. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    Mahieux gives a bravura performance as the title character. Director Garrone keeps the story involving even though it doesn't quite live up to the star's strong talents.
  9. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    75
    At moments, the story skirts uncomfortably close to the grotesque. But this atmospheric oddity delivers a surprisingly sensitive take on the overwhelming ache of loneliness.
  10. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    75
    Director and co-writer Matteo Garrone infuses The Embalmer with a spooky eroticism. The film is dark, both in theme and visual composition.
  11. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    70
    An effectively macabre and fiendishly entertaining tale of lust, unrequited love and the fine art of taxidermy.
  12. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Chuck Wilson
    70
    Mahieux, who is superb, methodically paint Peppino as a man for whom solitude is torture.
  13. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    70
    The screenplay evokes this psychosexual power struggle with perfect accuracy and finely tuned performances.
  14. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Ronnie Scheib
    70
    By the film's underwater finale, director Matteo Garrone has bestowed a tragic stature on the pint-size Othello who loves "not wisely but too well."
  15. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    60
    Both the actor and the character deserve a better movie, one that might have channeled the latter's desires into more than just a few rote genre thrills.
  16. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Edward Guthmann
    50
    A dark, unsettling drama from Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone.

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