31
Metascore
36 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 50Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversA shock ending may be the best hope for this film, a convoluted mystery that thinks it's way smarter than it is.
- 50San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSan Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleBy the end, it reveals itself as too pat, too absurd and -- as a polemic against capital punishment -- philosophically self- defeating.
- 50Miami HeraldConnie OgleMiami HeraldConnie OgleThere's no real artistry to this: It's as though Parker has just seen "Seven" and suffered some sort of David Fincher flashback.
- 50USA TodayClaudia PuigUSA TodayClaudia PuigSoon, the audience feels its own sense of despair -- for a movie that might have worked but didn't.
- 50VarietyDavid StrattonVarietyDavid StrattonPunches the expected buttons without being entirely convincing.
- 40TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghTV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghThe film's greatest asset is Linney, whose prickly, finely calibrated performance as the doomed Harraway makes her loss resonate more powerfully than any of the point-counterpoint rhetoric.
- 40Film ThreatRick KisonakFilm ThreatRick KisonakThe film doesn't have anything but bad news for Spacey fans anxious for the actor to break a stinky streak.
- 25Boston GlobeWesley MorrisBoston GlobeWesley MorrisPositively reeks of self-importance -- the jokey, ham-fisted, pseudo-socially relevant, punch-pulling kind. It reeks worse of acting -- the Jack-Lemmon-in-a-coma Kevin Spacey kind.
- 20Film ThreatMichael DequinaFilm ThreatMichael DequinaBad movies are easy to make, but as this overheated and self-defeating propaganda piece shows, it takes a genuinely talented group of people to come up with the most astonishing botch jobs.
- 10Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesChicago ReaderJ.R. JonesA new low for director Alan Parker, this trite mystery thriller does for capital punishment what his "Mississippi Burning" did for civil rights: with its muddled message, liberal piety, and slick Hollywood plot mechanics.