Before I Go to Sleep
Clarius Entertainment | Release Date: October 31, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
41
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
18
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 1, 2014
Before I Go to Sleep emerges as a mystery — one with a slow burn leading to a big payoff. But what keeps the movie going, beyond questions of what is true and what is false, are the issues raised by the illness itself. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyKyle AndersonOct 31, 2014
Sleep is 91 minutes of delightfully twisted tension and three minutes of eye-rolling treacle. Kidman and Firth are both excellent in their sadness and savagery, and Joffe builds tension far better than most of the horror movies available at your local Cineplex this Halloween weekend. If only he had quit while he was ahead. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreOct 29, 2014
Whatever twists this puzzle tosses at us, the film reminds us that a great actor, in close-up, telling a story with just her or his eyes, is still the greatest special effect the movies have to offer. This cast telling this story ensures us that nobody will be dozing off Before I Go to Sleep. Read full review
70
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekOct 30, 2014
If the story is a smidge predictable, at least the movie is pleasingly old-fashioned and grown-up, with a ’90s paranoid-thriller vibe. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyOct 30, 2014
Rowan Joffé’s drizzly, workmanlike thriller Before I Go To Sleep turns a ludicrous premise into a fitfully suspenseful, consistently interesting exercise in audience manipulation. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelOct 30, 2014
Kidman and Firth both deliver compelling performances, although this kind of plot-driven fare is no real challenge to their considerable acting talents. Read full review
60
TheWrapJames RocchiOct 29, 2014
Before I Go To Sleep‘s combination of talents on both sides of the camera means that while it may not rocket you to the edge of your seat as quickly and cruelly as the recent “Gone Girl,” it's hardly a snooze. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeOct 10, 2014
As a thriller, Before I Go To Sleep is perfectly effective, but while director Rowan Joffe keeps the twists coming, something about Kidman’s blank, frosty performance is unconvincing. Read full review
60
EmpireHelen O'HaraSep 1, 2014
Strong performances keep the viewer guessing as much as our heroine, but the character drama recedes as the thriller element builds, to its detriment. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniOct 31, 2014
Firth is brilliant as a preternaturally patient man - every day he has to tell her the same exact story. But he has a creepy way about him. Is it love that drives him, or something darker? Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyOct 31, 2014
Throbbing musical crescendos and flickery flashbacks abound but apart from some outlandish plot machinations, nothing here is good or bad enough to be memorable. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 31, 2014
Were it not for the participation of two A-list actors, Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth, Before I Go to Sleep would have been headed straight to video. The inclusion of those two doesn't make the film any better, just less anonymous. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanOct 30, 2014
The film is not without its pleasures. Kidman and Firth lend the pulpy material a certain prestige, even if Strong comes across as simply another plot device (and a perplexing one at that). Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinOct 30, 2014
Some eerie answers are revealed, and there are a few decent left-field jolts en route. But the plot is hardly airtight — at times the holes are downright gaping — and viewers will likely have their fair share of questions once the film's final corner is turned. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithOct 30, 2014
Unfortunately, the film turns out to be not quite as twisty as promised: it’s less a pretzel than it is a Cheez Curl. And I do mean cheez: The resolution, when it comes, is wholly lacking in nutritional value. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinSep 1, 2014
Writer-director Rowan Joffe’s adaptation of S.J. Watson’s bestseller honors the lurid spirit of the page-turner enough to satisfy fans, but he doesn’t transmute the material into something richer and deeper the way. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianStephen WhittyNov 1, 2014
It's shallow, it's silly, it's pat. Read full review
40
The New York TimesStephen HoldenOct 30, 2014
If it weren’t for the diligent performances of its stars, who inject some emotional depth into this bogus claptrap, Before I Go to Sleep would be an unwatchable, titter-inducing catastrophe. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierOct 30, 2014
This dull thriller wastes the potential of Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth. Read full review
40
The DissolveKate ErblandOct 30, 2014
Twist cinema at its most brainless, Rowan Jaffé’s blunt-force thriller Before I Go To Sleep appears to have forgotten that films about amnesia don’t render the audience incapable of recalling what’s happened from one scene to the next. Read full review
40
The GuardianHenry BarnesOct 10, 2014
It aims for sexy and/or dangerous, but the tone is dry and the pace lags. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeySep 10, 2014
It’s just chilly and uninvolving. Read full review
40
VarietyGuy LodgeSep 1, 2014
There’s perilously little playfulness to be found either in the script or its otherwise handsomely ashen cinematic treatment. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoOct 31, 2014
Before I Go to Sleep is a movie with nothing to hold on to but a paper-thin mystery with really only one of two possible suspects in the end. Read full review
38
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonOct 30, 2014
Despite its intriguing premise, the film amounts to little more than tedious, clichéd melodramatics. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 30, 2014
This is one of the worst movies of the year. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneOct 31, 2014
It's hard to tell if the film is hampered or helped by the performances of its three stars, because it's so amateurishly written and directed that their participation beggars belief. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleLouis BlackNov 5, 2014
Before I Go to Sleep still offers a near encyclopedic look at what not to do. Read full review
20
CineVueDaniel GreenOct 10, 2014
The only thing Joffe's Before I Go to Sleep has going in its favour is that it's too brief to really lull you into slumber - despite its best efforts, Read full review
0
The PlaylistDrew TaylorOct 31, 2014
The story is so poorly-plotted, nonsensical, and misogynist that it's hard to imagine one person liking this material, much less millions of literate book lovers. Read full review
0
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 30, 2014
Rowan Joffe directed from his own adaptation of a novel by S.J. Watson. If you’re thinking of seeing this turgid turkey, forget it. Read full review
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