The New York Times by A.O. Scott
Such an amalgam of fairy tales, old movies and tabloid stories that it never develops a life of its own.
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
France · 1999
1h 36m
Director François Ozon
Starring Natacha Régnier, Jérémie Renier, Miki Manojlović, Salim Kechiouche
Genre Horror, Thriller, Romance
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After a perverted impulse drives them to kill, Alice and her boyfriend, Luc, drag the body into the woods, only to find themselves hopelessly lost – much like the fairy-tale plight of Hansel and Gretel. Starving and with no hope of being found, they chance upon a dilapidated cottage where a hulking man takes them prisoner and proceeds to feed Luc's sexual appetite.
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The New York Times by A.O. Scott
Such an amalgam of fairy tales, old movies and tabloid stories that it never develops a life of its own.
San Francisco Chronicle by Bob Graham
Straddles a number of genres -- horror film, lovers on the lam, fairy tale -- and gives them all a cool, knowing spin.
Has its own sense of logic and integrity that demand a kind of begrudged respect.
May be as gimmicky as Ozon's other features, but it's also more resonant and even haunting.
New York Post by Jonathan Foreman
Francois Ozon, perhaps France's hottest director of the moment, is often better creating stylish visuals than dramatically credible situations, but Criminal Lovers is never boring.
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
Imagine "Hansel and Gretel" by way of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
This remains the one and only fusion of ''Deliverance'' and ''Hansel and Gretel'' that I ever hope to see.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Sean Axmaker
It's a passionate vision thick with eroticism, but the musky atmosphere gets a little thick and murky.
Philadelphia Inquirer by Steven Rea
Both the leads are scarily good, and Ozon imbues his troubling tale with jarring blasts of light and the sun-dappled beauty of the natural world.
San Francisco Examiner by Wesley Morris
In Criminal Lovers, the "Bonnie and Clyde" model of killing-as-erotica gets a shrewd, funny, decidedly French workout.
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