| 100 |
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
This is one of the rare movies to explore American materialism through the eyes of an all-too-ordinary person who isn't up to the challenges of everyday life.
|
| 100 |
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
What surprises us most is the picture's topicality, and not just because terrorists crashed a plane into the Pentagon three years ago.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Does the film have a message? I don't think it wants one. It is about the journey of a man going mad. A film can simply be a character study, as this one is.
|
| 88 |
Premiere
Aaron Hillis
The brilliant subtleties of this absorbing, must-see drama are best seen through Penn, who transforms a strongly nuanced script into the greatest performance of the year.
|
| 83 |
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Director Niels Mueller's attempt to create a middle-class "Taxi Driver" (he tips his hand a bit smugly by respelling Byck's name to evoke Travis Bickle) has a creepy, meticulous exactitude.
|
| 80 |
The New Yorker
David Denby
The movie re-creates Sam's miserable days with enough sympathy to come within hailing distance of such emblematic works of American disillusion as Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" and Saul Bellow's "Seize the Day."
|
| 80 |
Los Angeles Times
Carina Chocano
It's a deeply affecting performance, and it drives this quietly powerful, unrelenting film.
|
| 80 |
Dallas Observer
Robert Wilonsky
Penn's lead performance is the main attraction here, and it's a fine piece of work--far superior to his overly showy Oscar-winning role last year.
|
| 80 |
Empire
Alan Morrison
Stark, bold drama.
|
| 75 |
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
This riveting film qualifies as the anti-crowd-pleaser -- but Penn makes it unthinkable to turn away.
|
| 75 |
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
Assassination reminds you that Penn can be very funny.
|
| 75 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
Re-creates the era convincingly, and, as usual, Penn is mesmerizing: a consummate movie actor at the peak of his game.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
A faithful portrait of a period in American social history.
|
| 75 |
New York Post
V.A. Musetto
It features Sean Penn in a mesmerizing portrayal of the would-be hijacker.
|
| 70 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
Comparisons to "Taxi Driver" are unavoidable and mostly unflattering to Mueller's film, but Assassination engages more directly with the political fissures of the time, which deeply divided the nation.
|
| 70 |
Village Voice
Michael Atkinson
Moody, pretentious, but potent.
|
| 70 |
The Hollywood Reporter
Ray Bennett
First-time director Niels Mueller and his co-screenwriter Kevin Kennedy depict Sam's disintegration expertly and they have fashioned a well-made picture with much to like.
|
| 70 |
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Powerful, haunting, but ultimately disappointing. Few American movies address abject failure as forcefully as this one, and Sean Penn delivers an intense performance as Bicke.
|
| 67 |
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
See it for the star. Penn makes a film that in many respects feels low scale and ordinary into something painfully human and real.
|
| 67 |
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
Penn's Bicke is often so pitiable it's hard not to want to look away – but what else to expect from perhaps our most compulsively watchable contemporary actor?
|
| 63 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
A downer of a drama.
|
| 63 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
Sometimes, you'd swear he's (Penn) reprising his performance as a mentally handicapped man in "I Am Sam."
|
| 63 |
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
The movie doesn't make you care.
|
| 63 |
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
It's a tribute to Penn's talent and guts that he manages to bring it off--even if the movie doesn't.
|
| 63 |
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
This is another movie where politics trump the narrative.
|
| 60 |
The New York Times
Manohla Dargis
That The Assassination of Richard Nixon is as well directed, acted and shot as it is makes Mr. Mueller's inability to invest his film with significance all the more disappointing.
|
| 60 |
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
The director and co-writer, Niels Mueller, has also done his work well, but the film feels insubstantial at 95 minutes, even though -- or maybe because -- it bristles with borrowed ideas and unavoidable associations.
|
| 50 |
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
The Assassination of Richard Nixon makes Bicke suffer the greatest indignity: it turns him into a relentless bore.
|
| 50 |
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
Only moderately compelling.
|
| 50 |
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Penn's magnetism and hesitant line delivery create what interest there is, although the whole picture suffers from a central figure who can never get it together on any level.
|
| 50 |
New York Magazine
Ken Tucker
Penn is mostly in "I Am Sam mode" here, doing a lot of shoe-gazing and mumbly-talk, but not without adding an edge of bitter intelligence to his character; he's just too good an actor to merely repeat himself, even when the material encourages him to.
|
| 50 |
USA Today
Mike Clark
Even if audiences can get by the tasteless shock title, it's tough to figure who will ever watch this movie - even when it's on cable.
|
| 50 |
LA Weekly
David Chute
This often gripping but also unremittingly grim and drab account of these events is a "Taxi Driver" without the cathartic finale.
|
| 50 |
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
A slight movie and a major downer, is an acting showcase for Sean Penn. That's good, but not enough.
|
| 50 |
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Unfortunately, the trajectory of Mueller and co-screenwriter Kevin Kennedy's repetitive screenplay echoes "Taxi Driver" so closely as to invite unfavorable comparison with Martin Scorsese's benchmark chronicle of alienation.
|
| 50 |
Film Threat
Chris Barsanti
The primary problem with The Assassination of Richard Nixon comes in its attempts to make drama out of a minor man's minor stab at infamy.
|
| 50 |
Slate
David Edelstein
This is one of Penn's punishing, single-dimension performances, and it seems to be even more whiningly masochistic than what's called for in the script.
|
| 30 |
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
It grinds on and on without mercy. You're in the cross hairs. There is no escape. Where is that Secret Service when you need it?
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