Salon by Andrew O'Hehir

A masterful accomplishment...teems with its own sense of life, crackles with daring, walks the tightrope between satire and pathos with a rare assuredness.

L.A. Weekly by John Patterson

Very much a fully realized cinematic experience. John Turturro, even if you have to act less, be sure to direct more, and often.

Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas

Everything falls into place and seems exactly right: the brisk tempo, the crisp, witty performances, the slightly sooty touch.

Philadelphia Inquirer by Carrie Rickey

Few movies are as eloquent in their performances and their art direction.

Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington

A gloriously giddy movie about theater, love and artifice, an unabashed art film.

San Francisco Chronicle by Edward Guthmann

Self-satisfied -- an undisciplined brat of a film.

Baltimore Sun by Ann Hornaday

John Turturro's farce about life and theater that is by turns elegant and bawdy, but always transfixing.

Newsweek by Andrea C. Basora

The true strength of the film lies in its vast ensemble of actors.

The New York Times by Janet Maslin

Summons the stock characters of behind-the-scenes theater stories and affectionately invests them with new life.

Austin Chronicle by Sarah Hepola

Often elegant, at times frustratingly uneven, comedy that is hopelessly in love with theatre, poetry, and -- for once -- marriage.

USA Today by Mike Clark

Susan Sarandon has never looked better in her 29-year screen career than she does here.

New York Daily News by Jami Bernard

Beneath the noisy, farcical surface of John Turturro's Illuminata is a thoughtful and unusually mature meditation on love.

Portland Oregonian by Shawn Levy

It isn't, finally, satisfying: It's too uneven, indulgent, fey.

Chicago Reader by Lisa Alspector

Insights about romance are enhanced by the novel production design, which includes puppetry, but the story's reflexivity is smug and cloying.

Film.com by John Hartl

Its pretensions eventually undo it.