Critic Rating
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Director
Nikita Mikhalkov
Cast
Sergei Makovetsky,
Nikita Mikhalkov,
Sergey Garmash,
Valentin Gaft,
Aleksey Petrenko,
Yuriy Stoyanov
Genre
Crime,
Drama,
Mystery
“12” is set in contemporary Moscow where 12 very different men must decide the fate of a young Chechen accused of murdering his step-father, a Russian army officer. Consigned to a makeshift jury room in a school gymnasium, one by one each man takes center stage to confront, connect, and confess while the accused awaits a verdict and revisits his hardships in war through his flashbacks.
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Village Voice
Miklahkov keeps 12 tops spinning at all times in the school gymnasium that serves as their deliberation room, and though the speech/conversion pattern grows a little pat, the movement toward consensus raises the further, richly complicated question of how to decide not only what is right, but what is best.
New York Post by Lou Lumenick
The time passes quickly. This is the rare remake that does honor to the spirit of the original.
NPR by Bob Mondello
The title is shorter, but that's the only thing remotely diminished about 12, Nikita Mikhalkov's exuberantly Russian reworking of Reginald Rose's 1950s jury-room play, "12 Angry Men."
Los Angeles Times
There is an unnerving and hopefully implausible twist at the end, but for the most part, Mikhalkov's 12 is magnetic.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
With its thunderous drama and larger-than-life characters, which lend it a brawling energy, 12 is never dull.
Variety by Ronnie Scheib
Expansively, dramatically, magnificently Russian, Nikita Mikhalkov's loose remake of "12 Angry Men" plays like vintage jazz from a veteran band.
The A.V. Club by Noel Murray
Rarely has the voyeuristic appeal of sitting on a jury been so cleverly expressed.
San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle
No matter how bad things get, you can always be thankful for this: You're not on trial for murder in Russia.
Boston Globe by Ty Burr
The new film's not only almost double the length of the original, it's four times as ambitious - a sprawling, surrealist, ultimately disturbing portrait of a society lurching uncertainly toward democracy. What's really on trial in this movie? Just the Russian soul.
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
Has none of the crisp passion or suspense of the 1957 Sidney Lumet version; it's bloated, heavy-handed, and lugubrious.
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