60
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinThe superb English stage director David Leveaux keeps the pacing taut while creating space for his actors to work their magic.
- 71Paste MagazineJacob OllerPaste MagazineJacob OllerThe film never quite achieves the level of fevered hurry for which it aims—sometimes due to its often trite, on-the-nose dialogue and sometimes to the stilted delivery of said dialogue.
- 70Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth Turan"Exception" breaks no new ground but it is a solidly done and always engrossing piece of alternate history, mixing real people and events with fictional ones.
- 63Slant MagazineChristopher GraySlant MagazineChristopher GrayDavid Leveaux's film cannily incorporates elements of spycraft and sheer trash into a familiar formula.
- 63RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaRogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaFor Plummer’s plum of a performance alone, you might want to make an exception for The Exception.
- 63Boston GlobeMark FeeneyBoston GlobeMark FeeneyIn other words, it’s hopeless tosh — but expertly done hopeless tosh.
- 60Village VoiceSam WeisbergVillage VoiceSam WeisbergWhenever Plummer is onscreen, The Exception is scintillating entertainment. Unfortunately, it gets bogged down.
- 60The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottThe Exception is a diverting and occasionally exciting film, though it is rarely disturbing or thought-provoking in ways the material might require.
- 50The Film StageJared MobarakThe Film StageJared MobarakThe Exception is merely a serviceable drama taking us on a competent if predictable journey.
- 50TheWrapDave WhiteTheWrapDave WhiteWhatever nuance existed in the original novel, whatever detail regarding the complicated emotional existence of actual human beings, is reduced here to not-quite-suspenseful-enough plot points and an impossible forbidden romance that makes almost no sense.