The Company
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: December 25, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Like many Altman movies, this is less a dramatic story to follow than an atmospheric environment to visit. Read full review
100
Washington PostDesson Thomson
It is sheer brilliance and testament to the vitality of an old master. Read full review
90
SalonCharles Taylor
Robert Altman's surpassingly beautiful ballet movie feels lighter than air -- but in fact it's the great director's most tender and memorable film in years. Read full review
90
SlateDavid Edelstein
This is an absolutely miraculous movie. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A funny valentine by an old master, woos us into the dance. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Why did it take me so long to see what was right there in front of my face -- that The Company is the closest that Robert Altman has come to making an autobiographical film? Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Altman, showing the ardor and assurance of a master, pulls us into his film with seductive power. You won't want to miss a thing. Read full review
88
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Director and dancers catch the audience up in a web of imagination. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The key to The Company is the quiet, focused rapture of Neve Campbell, who formally trained in ballet and performed all of her on-screen dances. The tranquil delight she takes in her body becomes its own eloquent form of acting. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
A wonderfully vivid and engaging theatrical experience. Read full review
80
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Robert Altman takes an elegant, appealingly unemphatic look at the world of ballet. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Makes the world of ballet, seen by so many as rarefied, accessible and exciting, a rigorous art that yields breathtaking results. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Clearly Mr. Altman was enthralled by the company's work process, an alchemy through which sweat and muscularity on the rehearsal-room floor become exquisite abstractions on stage. His pleasure is infectious.
80
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
It should be a personal triumph or a personal tragedy, but it's neither: just another moment between curtain-rise and curtain-fall in the glorious business of creating beauty. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Knowing that the director is Robert Altman gives you a good idea of what to expect: a demimonde of locker-room chatter, catty sniping, backstage politics, high art and low self-esteem. Altman constructs the movie with the same cross-currents of his other ensemble movies. Read full review
75
New York PostMegan Lehmann
Campbell is a sweet presence and a capable dancer, featured in a theatrical pas de deux on an open-air stage during a wild thunderstorm that is one of the film's visual highlights. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
A love letter to performers who put their egos and bodies on the line. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Neve Campbell, who cowrote the story with scenarist Barbara Turner, plays one of the dancers; although her character isn't especially interesting, her story furnishes a minimal narrative thread to hold the rest together. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Enjoyably lithe and droll yet somehow almost water-soluble; it seems to dissolve onscreen. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
On the plus side, The Company is directed by Robert Altman, who's clearly drawn in by the rare opportunity of putting ballet on film, and who responds brilliantly...The rest of the time, the film fails to catch us up in the workaday intrigues of its characters (most of whom are played by real Joffrey dancers) the way Altman can when he's working in top form. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Though the ballets themselves are beautifully shot, they lean heavily in the direction of gimmicky and prop-heavy pieces; they're visually interesting but, by and large, they're not great dance. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
Dedicates itself to the beauty and thrill of bodies and motion and in doing so upstages Altman's cinematic conduit. The medium ultimately surpasses its messenger. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Robert Altman's gossamer, tension-free meditation on the ballet life, never quite recovers from a performance scene that arrives about 20 minutes in. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
The good thing about The Company is that nothing much happens. The bad thing about The Company is that nothing much happens. Read full review
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