72
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88RogerEbert.comRoger EbertRogerEbert.comRoger EbertThe movie's delicately timed pacing and Pollack's visual style work almost stealthily to involve us; we begin to feel the physical weariness and spiritual desperation of the characters.
- 83The A.V. ClubThe A.V. ClubThe movie is so unrelievedly pessimistic that only the most dedicated misanthrope could love it. But there’s something oddly bracing—noble, even—about a Hollywood picture that’s willing to say, without even a hint of soft-pedaling, that life isn’t worth living, and that it’s squalid, unfair, and disappointing.
- 80TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineA suitably glum yet cathartic film experience.
- 78Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenBleak but exquisitely fashioned microcosm of American life during the Depression.
- 70Chicago ReaderDave KehrChicago ReaderDave KehrThe material is simple and irresistible, and Sydney Pollack stages it well (though without transcending the essential superficiality of his talent).
- 60The New YorkerPauline KaelThe New YorkerPauline KaelThe director, Sydney Pollack, isn't particularly inventive, but he has tight control of the actors. They work well for him, and he keeps the grisly central situation going with energy and drive.
- 40Time OutTime OutThe acting is strident and overblown, the narrative technique gimmicky and obvious, and the implication that the competitors' situation is a microcosm of a wider-reaching American malaise (though safely distanced by the period and the flash-back-and-forth narrative technique) rather pretentious.