70
The Motive is a fun, light film with a sad sack lead we can love and good laughs sprinkled throughout.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
Whatever attracted Cuenca (“Cannibal”) to this material is seldom evident in his handling of it. Yet the material itself still lends the film its genuine if all-too-modest pleasures.
60
The Hollywood Reporter by Jonathan Holland
A high-risk shot at a screen adaptation of a novel within a novel, The Motive is entertaining and buzzes with fun ideas, but as an involving drama, it never gets past the first chapter.
70
Los Angeles Times by Michael Rechtshaffen
With its probing camera and spare piano score, the film effectively creates a clinically sterile environment that’s as spiritually devoid as the soul of its protagonist, and while the inevitable twist ending doesn’t land with the unsettling thud it might have, getting there is quite the page-turner.