Deterrence

Mr. Showbiz F. X. Feeney

I've not stopped thinking about it -- weighing might-have-beens and alternative courses of action, as though remembering an actual event rather than a nimble, superbly-realized fantasy. That's a first-rate achievement.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

A taut, consistently surprising political thriller with a sting in its tail.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A triumph of low-budget filmmaking.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The kind of movie that leaves you with fundamental objections. But that's after it's over. While it's playing, it's surprisingly good.

New York Daily News Robert Dominguez

A taut and thought-provoking thriller .

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

One of the pleasures of Deterrence is that it does not tell the audience what to think.

Boston Globe Jim Sullivan

There is a palpable edge-of-the-seat tension and a number of complex ethnic issues that linger after the movie ends.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A surprisingly gripping experience.

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

A carefully conceived and earnest movie that announces its many points just a bit too carefully and earnestly.

Los Angeles Times Jan Stuart

Lurie undermines his high-wire act with the melodramatic carryings-on of the diner patrons.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Foreigners who argue that Americans are Neanderthal savages can point to this movie as persuasive evidence.

TV Guide Ken Fox

A tense geopolitical thriller that leaves a curiously bad aftertaste.

LA Weekly Steven Mikulan

Ultimately this is a radio drama made into a movie with a single set.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Probably serves some useful purpose, despite its ham-fisted preachiness and mediocre acting.

USA Today Mike Clark

There's nothing super about the movie, aside from a loopiness that affords it a certain guilty-pleasure cachet.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The setting is cramped and the story is illogical, but it's suspenseful as long as you don't think about it very hard.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Begins and ends with footage of FDR intoning "I hate war," something the film takes two interminable hours to say.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

Steadfastly conventional.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A new political thriller, has an ending so egregiously stupid that not to reveal it would be a disservice to moviegoers.

Entertainment Weekly Steve Daly

The plot twists fall about as weightily as the fake snow.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

Ludicrously written and appallingly directed by ex-film critic Rod Lurie, seems to pride itself on the fact that it never (ever) leaves the greasy-spoon milieu in which the president and his staff are trapped by heavy snowfall.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

To say this movie's premise is bonkers is putting it mildly.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Well-intentioned but hardly well-executed.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

In short, let nothing deter you from staying home.