Original Sin

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie is not intended to be subtle. It is sweaty, candle-lit melodrama, joyously trashy, and its photography wallows in sumptuous decadence.

Chicago Reader Staff (Not Credited)

Retained my interest and sympathy -- at least until the nonsensical ending,

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Jolie and Banderas are two hot actors, in many senses of the word, and their scenes together have a lewd excitement.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Ridiculous, yes, but in an eminently watchable way. Most of the plot twists work surprisingly well, and the frequently naked leads work up some genuine chemistry.

Variety Lisa Nesselson

Lavish and florid, the corny venture falls into so-bad-it's-good territory.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Despite the heavy-handedness, isn't awful enough to be a hilarious howler. But neither is it good enough to become the tropical noir it could have been.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It's not nearly as mediocre a two hours as the trailers would have you think.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

The lead performances are very strong -- few actors possess as much sheer physical presence as this pair -- but their dialogue is stilted, as though lost in transit from a Victorian hothouse.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Banderas has some very effective moments, but in his emotional scenes, Cristofer has him screaming his lines into Jolie's face with such a spritzing fury, she might have filed a union grievance.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Aspires to blasphemy but achieves only banality.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

An erotic thriller with flaws.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

How bad, really, could it be? I couldn't have guessed.

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

The director belabors every moment, forgetting that pulp tales need to be told quickly, lest the viewer have time to second-guess.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Aficionados of movies in the so-bad-they're-good category might just revel in this overheated costume melodrama.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

It's too labored and ponderous to qualify as a so-bad-it's-good amusement. Original Sin is merely an old-fashioned bore.

San Francisco Chronicle Wesley Morris

Neither epochal nor epic in its ludicrousness. It's just run-of-the-mill trash.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Even the lovemaking scenes between two of Hollywood's most attractive stars -- often shot from above, like Cinemax soft porn -- are so unerotic, they make your skin crawl.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

A first-class snoozer.

USA Today Mike Clark

It's one bad apple.

Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark

An early scene inside a theater seems intended to wink at Sin's critics: "Disgusting! Cheap melodrama," a lady sniffs during intermission. It's a neatly reflexive acknowledgement of what we ourselves are watching, but even at that, our filmmaker is praising himself too extravagantly by half.

New Times (L.A.) Bill Gallo

Anyone who expects a little drama with their screen sex will have to go elsewhere.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Everything in this film is forgettable, right down to bongos pounding on the soundtrack to indicate a quickening of the pulse.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Doesn't even have earnestness going for it -- a tepid, blindly assembled post-noir.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

About half a notch above disaster.