20
Revelations of betrayals, faked identities and double-crosses come in waves in the last half-hour of Palmetto, but by then, the film has raised the one question it can't answer: Who cares?
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
San Francisco Examiner by Barbara Shulgasser
The script, based on British pulp writer James Hadley Chase's novel "Just Another Sucker," is a muddle, and no actors, no matter how compelling or talented, could make its silly dialogue work.
50
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
There's not a moment of originality in the entire motion picture.
50
Chicago Reader by Lisa Alspector
Because so many female characters spend so much time trying to seduce Harrelson (usually successfully), the notion that multiplicity enhances intrigue is pretty worn out by the time any duplicity is revealed.
50
San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle
There's no buildup and little shape. Scenes are strong, but the movie as a whole flags.
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Rick Groen
The result, as a colleague once so aptly put it, is less film noir than film beige.
50
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
The movie has elements of the genre and lacks only pacing and plausibility. You wait through scenes that unfold with maddening deliberation, hoping for a payoff--and when it comes, you feel cheated.
60
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
The film, adapted from a novel by James Hadley Chase, aspires to out-noir every other film noir that has been lumped under that popular term, including "The Big Sleep" (which it resembles), in plot trickery and steaminess.