Critic Reviews
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90
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Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
J. Edgar is a somber, enigmatic, darkly fascinating tale, and how could it be otherwise?
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88
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Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
As a period biopic, J. Edgar is masterful. Few films span seven decades this comfortably.
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80
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The Hollywood Reporter Todd McCarthy
This surprising collaboration between director Clint Eastwood and "Milk" screenwriter Dustin Lance Black tackles its trickiest challenges with plausibility and good sense, while serving up a simmeringly caustic view of its controversial subject's behavior, public and private.
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75
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USA Today Claudia Puig
J. Edgar shines a probing beam of light on a man who was widely feared, often disliked, but rarely understood.
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75
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Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
DiCaprio does more than disappear behind steely glasses and prosthetic old-age makeup. He transforms himself, in a feat of acting, from the inside out.
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75
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Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Even when the film trips on its tall ambitions, you can't shake it off.
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63
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Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Most disappointing, Eastwood's decades-spanning portrait reveals little about the man himself.
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60
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New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
At least Leonardo DiCaprio, grounded and sure, has commitment to spare. His portrayal of Hoover is undeniably terrific.
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55
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Movieline Stephanie Zacharek
As Lily Tomlin's Ernestine once said, "There's nothing like a Hoover when you're dealing with dirt." Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar could use more dirt: This is a sensitive, sympathetic portrait of a scummy little man.
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50
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San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
It's watchable and reasonably entertaining, to be sure. Eastwood doesn't make movies that are hard to sit through. But something in the film's point of view is off, not at cross-purposes, not contradictory, but incomplete, irrelevant and ever-so-faintly ridiculous.
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20
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Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
J. Edgar, with Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role, is at war with itself, and everyone loses...Mr. Eastwood's ponderous direction, a clumsy script by Dustin Lance Black and ghastly slatherings of old-age makeup all conspire to put the story at an emotional and historical distance. It's a partially animated waxworks.
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