Embalmer, The

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Skillfully directed and adroitly acted.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Garrone's movie finds a disconcerting niche between edgy character thriller and black comedy.

Variety David Rooney

Director Matteo Garrone's measured approach and soulfully humane focus combine to dignify the characters, allowing the tale of solitude, longing and sorrow to inch quietly under the viewer's skin.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

A bummer, but one that manages to stick to its depraved convictions until the strange and bitter end.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

From start to finish Garrone charges The Embalmer, a richly visual film, with an effective ambiguity and sense of foreboding.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

The movie, a keen look at the way passion unravels and obsession destroys, creates a black mood, a sense of truth and an enduring chill that stay with you.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Masterful at concealing its true nature and surprising us with the turns of the story.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Mahieux gives a bravura performance as the title character. Director Garrone keeps the story involving even though it doesn't quite live up to the star's strong talents.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Director and co-writer Matteo Garrone infuses The Embalmer with a spooky eroticism. The film is dark, both in theme and visual composition.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

At moments, the story skirts uncomfortably close to the grotesque. But this atmospheric oddity delivers a surprisingly sensitive take on the overwhelming ache of loneliness.

TV Guide Ken Fox

An effectively macabre and fiendishly entertaining tale of lust, unrequited love and the fine art of taxidermy.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

The screenplay evokes this psychosexual power struggle with perfect accuracy and finely tuned performances.

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

Mahieux, who is superb, methodically paint Peppino as a man for whom solitude is torture.

Chicago Reader Ronnie Scheib

By the film's underwater finale, director Matteo Garrone has bestowed a tragic stature on the pint-size Othello who loves "not wisely but too well."

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Both the actor and the character deserve a better movie, one that might have channeled the latter's desires into more than just a few rote genre thrills.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

A dark, unsettling drama from Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone.