52
Metascore
25 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 91Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumJanet McTeer displays Amazonian power while Jennifer Jason Leigh tears into her role as a high maintenance creature with a ferocity that leaves little room for her usual acting tics.
- 75New York Daily NewsJami BernardNew York Daily NewsJami BernardIt's an excellent fusion of subject and style.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertIt doesn't make the slightest effort to cater to conventional appetites. But the more you appreciate what they're trying to do, the more you like it.
- 75Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittDistinguished less by its elements of melodrama and psychodrama than by its intense acting and the vivid immediacy of Levring's powerful imagery.
- 75Portland OregonianShawn LevyPortland OregonianShawn LevyTo some, this will seem the height of aesthetic experimentation; to others, the most unendurable arty hogwash.
- 75Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula NechakSeattle Post-IntelligencerPaula NechakIsn't very pretty despite its extraordinary look. In fact, the film is downright queasy and unsettling.
- 70VarietyVarietySimultaneously gritty and cerebral.
- 60TV Guide MagazineKen FoxTV Guide MagazineKen FoxwWhat doesn't entirely succeed as convincing psychodrama makes one hell of an acting exercise (it's great fun to see great actors purposely mangle the Bard's immortal words), and Levring's cast -- McTeer in particular -- run with it.
- 40Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternWall Street JournalJoe MorgensternA deeper problem in The King Is Alive is an almost total absence of spontaneity.
- 40Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesAustin ChronicleKimberley JonesEither you like your movies to be, well, movie-like: imitations of life, with musical accompaniment and artificial lighting and tracking shots and looped dialogue; or you like them to be re-creations of life, sans the artifice. The King Is Alive clearly falls into the latter camp.