70
The New York Times by Dana Stevens
Succeeds in illuminating an almost unimaginably dark story.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
80
Powerful, concise, fully sustained.
100
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
This is moviemaking on the highest dramatic, psychological, and moral plane.
80
A thoughtfully written drama of ideas with vivid performances by August Diehl and Ulrich Matthes.
50
New York Daily News by Jack Mathews
Earnest but ambling drama.
80
It's important for the film to establish the concentration camp as a hell on earth from the start, but Schlöndorff has more in mind than creating another reminder of the inhumanity of fascism.
60
A grim meditation on faith and betrayal that focuses on a relatively obscure corner of Holocaust history: the fate of the Catholic clergy under the Third Reich.
50
The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt
The film is thought-provoking but not terribly involving.
50
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
Plays best as a dry exercise in historical doublespeak and rationalization.
75
It doesn't measure up to Schlondorff's 1979 Oscar winner, "The Tin Drum," but it's compelling nevertheless.