Range has a marvelous feel for the clichés and conventions of TV-news documentary, and the tone of mournful elegy he strikes here is both convincing and -- believe me, I'm shocked to be writing this -- moving.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
There's no question that Death of a President fulfills its objective as a conversation starter, but as a movie, it's sketchy at best.
Dramatically inert but a minor techno-miracle, Range's movie is a faux documentary with fake talking heads and seamless digital effects.
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
Death of a President is celluloid mediocrity. It's neither interesting nor convincing.
The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt
As convincing as the manipulated footage of the President's death in Chicago in October 2007 is, the movie itself cannot be more unconvincing in its approach.
The only thing that's shocking about Death of a President is how boring it is.
Chicago Tribune by Michael Phillips
The flaw in Death of a President isn't one of morality. It's one of dramatic interest.
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
The movie IS a provocation, but not a glib or ideologically myopic one.
Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer
There's something foul about staging the assassination of a sitting president in order to push a political agenda that could just as easily have been put forward without resorting to such sensationalism.
Disappointingly, Death of a President shrinks from its promise as a piece of genuinely radical or adventurous speculative fiction.