Chaplin
TriStar Pictures | Release Date: January 8, 1993 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
17
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
VarietyTodd 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
40
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJun 30, 2017
Chaplin is a screen biography of a comedy legend that takes itself much too seriously. [08 Jan 1993, p.8]
50
Boston GlobeJay 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]
50
Miami HeraldBill 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]
40
NewsweekDavid 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]
40
Los Angeles TimesKenneth 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
50
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
50
USA TodayMike 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]
50
Austin ChronicleLouis 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
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan 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
50
ReelViewsJames 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
50
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
50
Washington PostRita 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
60
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
60
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
50
The New York TimesVincent 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
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger 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
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