Walker, The

ReelViews James Berardinelli

This is not Schrader's finest work. The script is not tight, the ending disappoints, and there's a little too much drawn from "American Gigolo." But there are some great one-liners, compelling actors, and well-developed characters.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A quietly enthralling film because it contains the murder and the investigation within Carter's smooth calm.

San Francisco Chronicle G. Allen Johnson

Has a wicked sense of humor.

Variety Leslie Felperin

Even if this isn't Schrader's best, it's hardly his worst.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Though ultimately flawed, the film's depiction of velvet-gloved cruelty and matter-of-fact betrayal is surprisingly potent, and it's pure pleasure to watch Bacall prowling the corridors of power, tossing her golden mane and tossing off world-weary observations in a voice pitched somewhere between a purr and a growl.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Harrelson's charming flamboyance - seen to great effect in "No Country for Old Men" - is a great fit for Carter, who carries no small amount of self-loathing under his carefully coifed toupee.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Schrader's main interest is not in the mystery, per se, but in the political intrigue of incestuous Washington, where conflicts of interest are the norm and morality is indeed relative. The points are well-taken, but Harrelson's performance often gets in their way.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

This is a serious movie and, gliding around the center of power, a stylish one. But, like its protagonist, The Walker is unable to close the deal.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

While it can be labeled a thriller or a murder mystery, the film is talky, unhurried, contains little action and shows more interest in how characters think and behave than in its plot.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The brittle, very ''written'' catty quips meant to characterize Washington hypocrisy sound perfunctory; the story of an aging, self-hating homosexual who goes home alone to his lacquered town house feels ancient as well as uncomfortable for the writer-director. (Harrelson seems both game and ill at ease.)

The New York Times Stephen Holden

By the end of The Walker a movie that begins as a dazzling round of charades has deteriorated into a plodding game of Clue.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

The whole thing feels fusty and forced.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

While it's hard to dismiss his intention or effort, Harrelson's one-note performance sinks the film.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The main compensation is Harrelson's well-judged and finely shaded performance; the secondary ones are the ladies he hangs out with -- Lauren Bacall, Lily Tomlin, and Kristin Scott Thomas. But the rest of this mainly drifts.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

A mystery that isn't mysterious, a thriller that's barely thrilling.

Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt

Guilty of the most mortal of all movie sins: It's dull.