Critic Reviews
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75
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Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
There's a powerfully creepy sensibility to Deadfall. But the way it handles the messiness of families -- a universal message given vivid metaphorical life in the blood and guts it leaves in its path -- is finally rewarding.
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75
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch Calvin Wilson
Bana ("Munich") makes an effective bad guy. Hunnam portrays Jay as a hero worth rooting for. And Wilde turns in a nuanced performance as a woman in conflict with herself.
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75
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New York Observer Rex Reed
Deadfall is an above-average genre piece with a terrific cast that builds to a bloody Thanksgiving dinner shoot-out I found pretty close to unforgettable.
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70
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The Hollywood Reporter
Tonally, Deadfall seems to be aiming somewhere between Sam Raimi's "A Simple Plan" and the brilliant Pine Barrens episode of "The Sopranos," with a classic Western showdown at its climax. But the pedestrian writing holds it back.
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63
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ReelViews James Berardinelli
Deadfall suffers most obviously from a sense of not being adequately developed.
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55
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NPR Mark Jenkins
The movie's violence, although gruesome, flirts with slapstick, and the story appears bound for domestic comedy when all the major characters sit down for Thanksgiving dinner at June and Chet's grand Victorian farmhouse. But the meal becomes more freak show than satire.
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50
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Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
There isn't much to the characters in this morose thriller.
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50
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San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego
Despite a super-dark noir plot and respectable cast, Deadfall is a thriller that never quite delivers on its promise.
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50
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The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Solid performances from veterans Sissy Spacek and Kris Kristofferson as Jay's parents, and Treat Williams as the sheriff, anchor the older generation, but the characters do tend to conform to stereotypes of hard, unforgiving men and loving, patient women.
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40
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Los Angeles Times Betsy Sharkey
Some of the language is smart, sinister and ironic in just the right ways, particularly when Addison, Eric Bana's serial-killing mastermind, delivers it. In other cases, the dialogue is so ludicrously off - either unnecessary, or unnecessarily misogynistic if a cop is doing the talking - that it's hard to believe the same person wrote it.
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40
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New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
If Deadfall had more life, it might have been about more than just its wannabe edge. Ruzowitzky, whose 2007 film "The Counterfeiters" won a Best Foreign Film Oscar, understands the movie's simple plan. But it nonetheless puts us into a big sleep.
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