Chorus Line, A

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This is one of the most intelligent and compelling movie musicals in a long time - and the most grown up.

Chicago Tribune Gene Siskel

A classic play has been reduced a decent movie. It's a shame it couldn't be as good as the play; it's a small pleasure that it's as entertaining as it is. [20 Dec 1985]

Variety Staff (Not Credited)

Chorus often seems static and confined, rarely venturing beyond the immediate. Attenborough merely films the stage show as best he could.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Richard Attenborough's film version of the long-running Broadway musical hit A Chorus Line not only avoids the disaster that many had predicted for it, but is often surprisingly effective and enjoyable, transcending its troubled history. [20 Dec 1985]

Chicago Reader Dave Kehr

Richard Attenborough's direction achieves that balance of impersonality and brisk pacing we've come to recognize as "professionalism," and he doesn't clog up the dancing with too many stylistic gimmicks.

San Francisco Chronicle Gerald Nachman

Attenborough has done what nobody thought possible - recreate a classic without raping and pillaging the original, though Chorus Line purists will find plenty to moan about. [20 Dec 1985]

Time Richard Corliss

The film, though, lies dormant in its own decency.

TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)

Director Attenborough's film version has a couple of pleasant numbers which serve as oases amidst the dullness.

Los Angeles Times Sheila Benson

In this stately and fairly slavish representation, directed by Richard Attenborough, what pokes through with the pain of a broken bone is how thin the material really is. [12 Dec 1985]

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The stagebound setting gets boring; the action doesn't build a steady momentum; and the characters do far too much hanging around until the camera's ready to point at them again.

The New York Times Vincent Canby

A Chorus Line is less a movie than an expensive souvenir program.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jay Scott

On film, Bennett's bouncing brainchild is Richard Attenborough's Workout Tape, love story attached; the specificity is gone. The 16 auditioning dancers could be any people or all people. [11 Dec 1985]

Wall Street Journal Julie Salamon

When director Richard Attenborough isn't mangling dance numbers, he's focusing on a love story expressed almost entirely by means of close-ups of moony faces and teary eyes. [12 Dec 1985]