Metacritic reviews

Pollock is confident, insightful work--one of the year's best films.

Harris genuinely seems to be at one with the character, and his movie is eerily alive.

The result is a harrowing film, impossible to "like" in any conventional way, hypnotically impossible to turn away from.

Like its subject, Pollock is a messy creation, but one whose depth of commitment and high attack keeps it on track.

As good as Harris is, though, it's Harden's performance that sticks with you long after you've seen the movie. She understands what Krasner must have known intuitively. Greatness comes not from cleaning up messes, but from allowing them to be made in the first place.

The movie's best moments evoke the thrill of doing something new. Pollock convincingly retails the beauty and originality of the painter's best work -- it may not be an intellectual adventure, but it does represent one.

Ed Harris, who plays Pollock and makes his debut as a director - doing both jobs superbly, by the way - is angst incarnate.

For all the praise that has been heaped upon it, is a quasisatisfying, half realized vision.

Several startling depictions of the artist at work make you forget, if only temporarily, the serious shortcomings of the script.

Truth is, one can probably tell as much about Jackson Pollock the man by looking at his paintings than by watching this movie.