65
Metascore
13 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasLos Angeles TimesKevin ThomasA delicious adaptation by Susan Isaacs of her novel, directed with a light, knowing touch by Frank Perry. It’s a blithe, sparkling, sophisticated comedy-mystery laced with dark humor that couldn’t be more welcome in the current summer avalanche of teen movies. How gratifying to hear once again dialogue that crackles with wit and humor (and doesn’t even require subtitles!).
- 80Time OutTime OutIt's all very humorous and engaging, if only for proving that American whodunits don't have to have car chases and brutality; and it has a wicked eye for the vacuity of middle-class good life and what it may conceal. Lots of feelthy girl talk, too.
- 80The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyAlthough Compromising Positions is supposed to be a comedy and a mystery, the film's comedy is of such a high order that the rather ordinary question of the identity of the murderer seems to be interruptive of Mr. Perry's and Miss Isaacs' otherwise nastily funny, suburban satire. Reduced to its essentials, Compromising Positions is ''Nancy Drew and the Case of the Dissembling Dentist.''... A very entertaining film.
- 80The New YorkerPauline KaelThe New YorkerPauline KaelSusan Sarandon does inspired double-takes - just letting her beautiful dark eyes pop.
- 75Miami HeraldBill CosfordMiami HeraldBill CosfordCompromising Positions is not a big movie in any way, and it has its share of rough spots, particularly toward the end. But it's a late-summer concession to grown-up tastes after a season of intergalactic kids. And it's hard to hate a movie that contains this sentiment, again delivered deadpan: "God, I'd love to kill a dentist." [30 Aug 1985, p.D15]
- 63Chicago TribuneGene SiskelChicago TribuneGene SiskelThere's a good movie lurking somewhere in Susan Isaacs' script of her comic murder mystery novel "Compromising Positions" but neither Isaacs nor director Frank Perry has found it. [30 Aug 1985, p.A]
- 60TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineBased on screenwriter Susan Isaacs' first novel, the film is nearly undone by Frank Perry's lazy direction. Good performances from the entire cast, especially Sarandon, save the movie.
- 50Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertIf I were simply to describe the story of Compromising Positions, it might sound like lighthearted, slightly kinky fun. But the movie has such a bitter core, such a distaste for its characters, that I ended up feeling uncomfortable in its company. I think it's supposed to be a comedy, but I felt depressed by its world of rich, neurotic, bitchy suburbanities.
- 50Chicago ReaderDave KehrChicago ReaderDave KehrUnfortunately, Frank Perry's unbelievably ham-handed direction obscures most of what is craftsmanly and pleasant in Isaacs's work, pushing the material toward a smug, sloppy, heavily early-70s satire on the horrors of suburban life. A very mixed bag, but those who've missed a storytelling sense in American movies might want to have a look.