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Flawless
MGM

Flawless reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 50 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.0 out of 10
based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 1 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for pervasive language and strong violence

Starring Robert De Niro, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Miller, Chris Bauer, Skipp Sudduth, Wilson Jermaine Heredia , Nashom Benjamin, and Scott Allen Cooper

After suffering a stroke, an ultraconservative security guard (DeNiro) is assigned to a rehabilitative program that includes singing lessons. As a twist of fate, his teacher is his next-door neighbor, who is also a drag queen (Hoffman).


GENRE(S): Drama  
WRITTEN BY: Joel Schumacher  
DIRECTED BY: Joel Schumacher  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: April 25, 2000 
Video: April 25, 2000 
Theatrical: November 24, 1999 
RUNNING TIME: 112 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

90
TNT RoughCut Joel Schumacher
It's clear that Schumacher has risen from the self-imposed dreck of "Batman & Robin" and has returned to Hollywood to tell a good story.
83
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
It says a lot for Joel Schumacher's Flawless that you can see the picture's high-concept heart a mile away and still be won over by it.
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75
Boston Globe Jay Carr
A smartly crafted throwback to the gritty Manhattan crime melodramas of the '40s .
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75
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
More fable than slice of life, and all these people and props give Robert De Niro and Philip Seymour Hoffman their opening to create two screwy characters from opposite ends of the great personality divide
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75
San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
Contrived and overly schematic, but De Niro and Hoffman are such good actors that it never slips into pat sentiment.
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70
Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson
One of the season's biggest delights.
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67
Austin Chronicle Sarah Hepola
Not content to whisper its truths; it would rather flaunt its valuable lessons and its good intentions, proudly boasting its sentiments like a (rainbow-striped) badge of honor.
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66
Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
Perhaps most depressingly, in pulling out all the stops for an ugly, violent climax, he (Schumacher) cheapens this vividly drawn slice of life, turning it into a tiresomely flawed, garden-variety vigilante thriller.
63
USA Today Mike Clark
Worth stumbling into on cable not all that far into next year.
60
Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
This 'heartwarming' thriller refuses to distinguish realism from stylization, and much of the plot is a twisted mess of repetition and unpersuasive motivation.
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60
TV Guide Ken Fox
This surprisingly grim comedy-drama is about as good as director Joel Schumacher gets.
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60
Film.com Peter Brunette
If you want to see an object lesson in how brilliant acting can transcend high concept, this movie's for you.
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60
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Flawless this Joel Schumacher film is not, but it plays so well that scarcely matters.
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58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It finally just rings false as a human drama.
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50
LA Weekly Ernest Hardy
An appallingly crude film, with dialogue lifted off bumper stickers, characters stitched together from shorthand clichés (the brassy black drag queen; the fiery little Latin number) and a plot that's on cruise control from the opening credits.
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50
Film.com Elizabeth Weitzman
A small-scale mess.
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50
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
At its best when it simply lets Hoffman and De Niro play off each other .
50
Washington Post Rita Kempley
A coy seriocomedy distantly related to--but missing the sting of--"Kiss of the Spider Woman."
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50
Variety Emanuel Levy
Schumacher takes a step in the right direction with Flawless, a small-scale, intimate serio-comedy.
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50
Film.com John Hartl
Crass and depressing drama.
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50
New York Post Lou Lumenick
De Niro gives a technically brilliant performance as Walt, struggling with a body that will no longer obey him.
50
Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
It's obvious and stereotypical. It's leaden and unconvincing. It's not nearly as outrageous as it thinks it is.
50
The New York Times Stephen Holden
So awful it just might put an end to Hollywood's hypocritical infatuation with men in drag as symbols of its own supposedly liberated sexual attitudes.
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50
Village Voice Dennis Lim
Flawless never approaches the rancid bluster of "8MM," but it's an equally dishonest piece of manipulative hackwork.
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40
Slate Eliza Truitt
Corny, predictable, and packed with gay stereotypes.
40
Salon.com Charles Taylor
You need a pair of huge, hairy ones to make a picture this bad and call it Flawless.
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38
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Save your breath, and your money.
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38
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
A long, slow pity party full of characters who constantly bemoan their fate while telling other people not to pity themselves.
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38
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Hoffman's turn as the drag queen has its endearing and comically catty moments, but Flawless' utter phoniness subsumes all efforts at honest acting.
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38
Chicago Tribune Mark Caro
In making a movie that preaches love for odd ducks, Schumacher has turned Flawless into the oddest duck of all.
33
Portland Oregonian Diana Abu-Jaber
While this film has got a good head on its shoulders and a nicely made-up face, flawless it's not.
25
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
This noisy, disorganized story is riddled with clichés, stereotypes, and self-indulgence from beginning to end.
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25
San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris
Flawless is what happens when a filmmaker has no sense of naturalism, no sense of realism and no real natural sense.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Cunni L. gave it an 8:
CAMP! and brilliant performance by DeNiro and Hoffman. Not flawless, but who is?

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