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Walker, The
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 16 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Paul Schrader
Directed by: Paul Schrader
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 7, 2007
DVD: May 27, 2008
Running Time: 108 minutes, Color
Origin: USA / UK
Summary
RATING: R for language, some violent material and nude images
Starring Woody Harrelson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lily Tomlin, Lauren Bacall, Willem Dafoe, Ned Beatty, Moritz Bleibtreu, and Mary Beth Hurt
A contemporary drama set in Washington, DC, The Walker centers around Carter Page (Harrelson), a well-heeled and popular socialite who serves as confidant, companion, and card partner to some of the capital's leading ladies. These pampered women are married to the most powerful men in America, and when their husbands are too busy running the country to attend to their wives, the wives turn to their "gay best friend," Carter, for warmth, wit, and wisdom. Carter's loyalty is tested when his dearest friend (Scott Thomas) finds herself on the brink of a scandal that could destroy her reputation and her husband's career. Offering to cover for her, Carter suppresses incriminating evidence, only to find himself the chief suspect in a criminal investigation. Suddenly, this well-connected man-about-town is a pariah, hounded by the police and forced to find the true culprit and clear his name. More importantly, he must reexamine whether it is important to be accepted by a society based on betrayal, hypocrisy, and corruption. A tale of moral redemption that takes the form of a mystery-thriller, The Walker is the third part of Schrader's "lonely man" trilogy, which began with American Gigolo (1980) and also includes Light Sleeper (1992). (THINKFilm)
Also On Metacritic
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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
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...
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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A quietly enthralling film because it contains the murder and the investigation within Carter's smooth calm.
Read Full Review >Variety Leslie Felperin
Even if this isn't Schrader's best, it's hardly his worst.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.)
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
While it's hard to dismiss his intention or effort, Harrelson's one-note performance sinks the film.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
A mystery that isn't mysterious, a thriller that's barely thrilling.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt
Guilty of the most mortal of all movie sins: It's dull.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Arnold P. gave it a6:
Considering all of the talent that went into making this film it was flat. Woody channeled his best Truman Capote imitation and did a good job. He showed acting chops and juxtaposed with his great performance in "No Country for Old Men", impressed me.The gay man he was portraying seemed a hackneyed throwback to some character out of the fifties.The grand ladies all were fun to watch, waltzing through their roles. The Washington scene had some sizzling dialogue, but it could have been so much better the way "Michael Clayton" sizzled.
