Chaplin

TriStar Pictures | Release Date: January 8, 1993

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

47	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Todd McCarthyJun 30, 2017

Telling the entire story of Chaplin's 88 years was probably a hopeless goal, but the biopic does offer the saving grace of a truly remarkable central performance by Robert Downey Jr. and some lovely moments along the way. Read full review

EmpireAngie ErrigoJun 30, 2017

Sir Richard Attenborough's long-in-the-making account of the life of Sir Charles Chaplin is a film you desperately want to like, but it emerges as a big, shiny, old-fashioned biopic that ultimately fails either to illuminate the genius of its subject or to excite as a story. Read full review

The GuardianAlex Von TunzelmannJun 30, 2017

Robert Downey Jr sparkles as the British comedy giant but Richard Attenborough's film feels somewhat dutiful around him. Read full review

Jay CarrJun 30, 2017

Richard Attenborough's Chaplin is little more than an illustrated crash course on Charlie Chaplin. But, while superficial, it at least avoids disgrace. [08 Jan 1993, p.25]

Bill CosfordJun 30, 2017

The film's one great asset, a real surprise, is Robert Downey Jr. in the title role. He grabs something of the Little Tramp's innate grace and anarchic wit, and he runs with it -- pratfalls with it and waddles off into the sunset with it. [08 Jan 1993, p.G5]

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)Jun 30, 2017

CHAPLIN is the cinematic equivalent of a whistle-stop tour of Europe--the kind that takes you to ten cities in five days at such speed that everything melts into a vaguely entertaining blur. Read full review

Mike ClarkJun 30, 2017

Director Richard Attenborough's Chaplin is catastrophic only partly because it tries to squeeze in topics, subtopics and more. [24 Dec 1992, p.3D]

Louis BlackJun 30, 2017

This film wanders and dallies and much of it is fun to watch, but you really know about as much about Chaplin when you leave the theatre as when you enter, and what's missing is the magic. Read full review

Jonathan RosenbaumJun 30, 2017

This packaged tour through the great man's career is unenlightening and obfuscating, despite an adept lead performance by Robert Downey Jr. Read full review

James BerardinelliJun 30, 2017

All-in-all, however, even though Chaplin is fitfully entertaining, it fails to touch enough emotional chords to make it of more than passing interest. Read full review

Time Out LondonStaff (Not Credited)Jun 30, 2017

Attenborough's very traditional biopic is a disappointment. Downey has captured the idealism and the melancholy, but not the sentimentality of the comic. Read full review

Rita KempleyJun 30, 2017

It's a monumental biopic that cheapens the hero's successes by glossing over the failures that surely also shaped the man. Read full review

Vincent CanbyJun 30, 2017

Chaplin is to serious biography, even to Mr. Attenborough's Gandhi, what unfortified cornflakes are to real food. It's slick packaging around what is mostly warm air. Read full review

Roger EbertJun 30, 2017

This is a disappointing, misguided movie that has all of the parts in place to be a much better one. Read full review

Steve PersallJun 30, 2017

Chaplin is a screen biography of a comedy legend that takes itself much too seriously. [08 Jan 1993, p.8]

David AnsenJun 30, 2017

Richard Attenborough's glumly misconceived Chaplin trudges its way through the great comic's long, brilliant, scandal-ridden career without ever catching fire. [28 Dec 1992, p.56]

Kenneth TuranJun 30, 2017

An unfortunate melding of style and subject matter, too intent on turning the Little Tramp into an icon to be regarded with stately awe to do justice to the disturbing energy of his life. Read full review