The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey

Wilder's created world is alive with his erudition, his sympathy for his characters in their loneliness and flawed goodness. This film doesn't do him justice but it's a gesture in the right direction.

TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh

Though handsomely mounted, this parable of intersecting destinies and implacable tragedy is as lifeless as a wax tableau.

The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck

Ultimately comes across as a soporific costume drama featuring a gallery of miscast stars.

Village Voice by Ben Kenigsberg

An honorable but dull attempt to translate a neglected literary source to the screen.

Variety by Jonathan Holland

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.

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.

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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by William Arnold

The script and direction by Irish filmmaker Mary McGuckian is just deadly.

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.

Dallas Observer by Robert Wilonsky

This all-star Euro-indie is stultifyingly torturous.

New York Post by Lou Lumenick

"I am surrounded by oceans of boredom," the campy Abraham complains at one point. It's a sentiment audiences are bound to share.