61
Metascore
14 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 91The PlaylistOktay Ege KozakThe PlaylistOktay Ege KozakThe People vs Fritz Bauer successfully uses the moral importance of its themes and the strength of its performances in order to build a riveting procedural that efficiently covers for its lack of visual pizzazz.
- 80The New York TimesKen JaworowskiThe New York TimesKen JaworowskiMr. Kraume captures the glances and motions that lay bare a character’s thoughts. He’s fond of the gruff and curmudgeonly Bauer, yet sentimentality is scarce while the double-crossings are surprising and the dry humor is welcome.
- 75RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireRogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireKraume’s mounting of this tale, while capable enough, is also rather staid and conventional.
- 70Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranEnergizing the entire film, in fact powering us past its more conventional aspects, is the compelling performance of veteran German actor Burghart Klaussner, who captures Bauer’s firebrand intensity exactly.
- 60CineVueMatthew AndersonCineVueMatthew AndersonThe pacing is methodical but breakthroughs in the case and anxious moments where all is feared lost generate real tension.
- 60VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeThough relatively conservative in its approach, Lars Kraume’s teleplay-style treatment of a still-touchy subject has the nerve to name names.
- 50Village VoiceSerena DonadoniVillage VoiceSerena DonadoniBy focusing on his subject's unwavering moral certainty, Kraume denies his ethical complexity and diminishes the difficulties of his challenging stance to educate the society that wanted him dead.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijThe Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijThough blessed with a spectacular true story and character to work from, director and co-screenwriter Lars Kraume...fails to breathe much life into the stuffy, overly complex enumeration of the historical facts.
- 38Slant MagazineClayton DillardSlant MagazineClayton DillardLars Kraume's tinkering with the historical record would be more welcome were he also shifting away from the standard biopic template.