70
The film's theme of acceptance is undercut considerably by Hurt's overcalculated performance.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
100
San Francisco Chronicle by Bob Graham
Don't be too quick to jump on Hurt with complaints of old-fashioned gay stereotyping. Only with a development well into the movie will the audience realize the layers he brought to Molina's role-playing.
75
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
It packs an emotional punch despite shortcomings of story and style.
90
Leonard Schrader adapted the screenplay from the novel by Manuel Puig, and his fearless willingness to explore every corner of human nature serves what is greatest and sweetest in the performances of William Hurt and Raul Julia.
80
New Times (L.A.) by Gregory Weinkauf
Powerful, sensuous and thematically hokey transsexual adventure.
88
New York Daily News by Jami Bernard
Each man winds up owing the other -- and the enormity of the sacrifices they make on one another's behalf are quite moving and have not been duplicated in the movies since.
70
Appears strangely dated, and its unspecified location seems existentially hokey.
75
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
One of the most intriguing prison dramas ever put on film.
88
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Tells one of those rare and entrancing stories where one thing seems to happen while another thing is really happening.