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80A dense, faithful and absorbing adaptation of the Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel. [08 Nov 1996]
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75This new version is quite faithful to Conrad's novel, not only in content but also in tone. [13 Dec 1996]
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75Writer-director Christopher Hampton's adaptation of Joseph Conrad's widely-read novel is an honorable failure, a screen version that's actually too faithful to its source.
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The movie is full of macabre surprises. As good as Hoskins is as the little sweat-manufacturer caught in everybody's pliers, far better is Robin Williams in an unbilled appearance as a nihilist dynamiter. [13 Dec 1996]
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67It's an utterly contemporary film that forces - and rewards - hard reflection on the nature of truth, goodness, and identity.
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50This is a piece of gloriously literary and serious filmmaking, but again it falls prey to misjudgments in pacing and rhythm.
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On screen, the result feels stagey and cramped, as though the film had been "adjusted for your TV set" before going to video. [13 Dec 1996]
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50Christopher Hampton's film conveys the basic plot of Joseph Conrad's sinuous novel but loses the book's sardonic tone and psychological depth.
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40The big surprise and highlight is not in the clumsily structured, jerky plot of the monotonous mood but an uncredited Robin Williams, actually chilling as a mad bomber anarchist.
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40A dour study of terrorism, 1880s style, The Secret Agent represents an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's only London-based novel, the fidelity of which to the original text does not yield a terrifically exciting film.
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40Fairly strong on period atmospherics, but it mainly adds up to yet another pointless adaptation of a literary standby.
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30The best one can say for Christopher Hampton's dispirited adaptation of Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent is that this weirdly sentimental movie might direct new attention to Conrad's corrosive novela satire. [12 Nov 1996]
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30The movie, which imagines its principal characters as metaphorically ticking time bombs, never convincingly portrays their passions.
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The Secret Agent, with its hemmed-in shots, feels like a TV production; what is said takes precedence over what is done. Even in the writing department, Hampton founders. [06 Dec 1996]
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25This project is dead in the water. Read the book. Better still, read "Victory."
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25This thick, leaden production starring Bob Hoskins and Patricia Arquette - and an uncredited Robin Williams - has a sophomoric air, even though it faithfully follows the book.
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25Hampton's directorial inexperience shows, and the film remains curiously disjointed and devoid of suspense. [06 Dec 1996]
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