The Quiet American
User Score
7.3 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 22 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 22
  3. Negative: 4 out of 22

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  1. ArmandG.
    Apr 2, 2003
    2
    I could only sit through twenty minutes of this movie, but I really thought the acting was terrible. Didn't get a chance to see Caine do anything much. It is very mediocre in many other ways including editing and cinematography to name just two.
  2. SethR.
    Dec 19, 2002
    3
    I'm totally mystified by the critical response to this film. I thought it was terrible, start (the moment an Asian woman's face appeared superimposed over fire) to finish (a cloddish and idiotic procession of faux newspaper headlines how - surprise! - the U.S. became involved in Vietnam). Caine swims upstream valiantly in this movie, trying to make the most of a role that he9;s clearly been waiting his whole career to play. Brendan Fraser is laughable, completely devoid of presence, charisma, or subtext. It's hard to believe they could screw up such a great, cinematic book, but they did, and I think Noyce is mostly to blame. Emblematic of this movie's problems is the sequence in which a bomb goes off in Hanoi central square. They show the sequence excised of its most dramatic bits, then cut to Caine, who tells you the most dramatic bits, then they cut back to show the most dramatic bits. Probably the dumbest sequence I've seen all year. I don't care what anybody says, it was truly rotten. A "3" only for Caine making the best of a bad situation.… Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
84 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 39 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 37 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 39
  3. Negative: 1 out of 39
  1. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    90
    Ever since the movie made a brief appearance late last year to qualify for Oscar consideration, Mr. Caine's performance has been hailed as the best of his career, and surely that's true.
  2. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    90
    Fowler may be the richest character of Mr. Caine's screen career. Slipping into his skin with an effortless grace, this great English actor gives a performance of astonishing understatement whose tone wavers delicately between irony and sadness.
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  3. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    100
    Star Michael Caine, who gives one of the great, inescapably moving performances in a career filled with them, based his character on personal impressions of the late author. And Greene's lifelong concern with moral ambiguity gives this film a texture and complexity that movies don't usually achieve.
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