40
Village Voice by Ben Kenigsberg
An honorable but dull attempt to translate a neglected literary source to the screen.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
20
Washington Post by Desson Thomson
After watching this movie, which stars Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Kathy Bates and Gabriel Byrne, I was moved only to find my own bridge to leap from.
50
The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck
Ultimately comes across as a soporific costume drama featuring a gallery of miscast stars.
25
New York Daily News by Jack Mathews
Rates an inquisition of its own. It may not be heresy to fill out an ensemble cast of Peruvian and Spanish characters almost exclusively with non-Hispanic actors, but it certainly destroys any sense of authenticity.
40
The stellar cast can do little to paper over the cracks in an awkward, unevenly-paced script that is composed of a series of sometimes-attractive scenes with little emotional undertow.
0
"I am surrounded by oceans of boredom," the campy Abraham complains at one point. It's a sentiment audiences are bound to share.
50
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
Though handsomely mounted, this parable of intersecting destinies and implacable tragedy is as lifeless as a wax tableau.
10
Dallas Observer by Robert Wilonsky
This all-star Euro-indie is stultifyingly torturous.
30
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
May be the opposite of trash, but it is something just as disposable: dead literary meat. Dragged down by a stuffy screenplay clotted with generic period oratory, overdressed to the point that the actors seem physically impeded by their ornate costumes, and hopelessly muddled in its storytelling, the movie is edited with a haphazardness that leaves many dots unconnected.
25
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by William Arnold
The script and direction by Irish filmmaker Mary McGuckian is just deadly.