80
A classy and clever French thriller. Jean-Pierre Darroussin's performance as a browbeaten husband is entertaining, and Kahn's script brings wit and imagination to a straightforward story.
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What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
100
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
Strange, scary, and atmospheric, with a delicious Claude Debussy score.
80
A satisfyingly well-wrought, old-school thriller: Character drives the plot, literally.
75
New York Daily News by Jami Bernard
The movie's clever ambiguity allows a number of interpretations. Perhaps it is all a dream, a parable, or a combination of wishful thinking and reality.
70
Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum
Director Cedric Kahn, Laurence Ferreira Barbosa, and Gilles Marchand collaborated on the well-honed script, derived from a Georges Simenon novel. The film works well with quiet tensions, but becomes less convincing and interesting once it moves beyond them.
75
Somewhat leisurely paced, by American standards, especially in the beginning, but it's well worth sticking around for the payoff.
75
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
The sights, sounds and traffic in Red Lights are oppressively ordinary; the people are unnervingly real. That reality doubles the suspense we might feel in a more slickly made but thinly plotted thriller.
80
With ruthless efficiency and wit, Kahn ratchets up unbearable tension and releases it in startlingly visceral fashion, but his placid denouement is the most chilling scene of all.
90
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
The brilliant, sinister French thriller Red Lights is a twisty road movie in which every sign points toward catastrophe.