75
An odd but original, at times even poetic, film about a vanished world.
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What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
This historical fantasy is too ambitious for its own good, but contains some striking imagery and likable performances.
38
New York Post by Jonathan Foreman
Boring and irritating, and also mildly offensive in its ignorant depiction of both Judaism and Catholicism.
50
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
Though the film ends on a surprising and genuinely magical note, it takes its own sweet time getting there; some viewers will have lost patience before the denouement arrives.
40
The brainchild of English director Ben Hopkins, who takes his time getting going. Too much time, really, as the first hour passes rather antsily, without quite achieving forward motion.
50
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
The more I think about Simon Magus, the less I'm sure what it's trying to say.
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Sean Axmaker
For all it's warmth and wonder, it carries little more power than a storybook fable.
50
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
May be reasonably diverting, but the story never matches the movie's fantastic visual imagination.
50
San Francisco Chronicle by Wesley Morris
The film has a persuasive murkiness and one extended mythopoetic final sequence that's almost moving in its silence.