Complete Unknown
IFC Films | Release Date: August 26, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
10
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyJoey NolfiAug 25, 2016
Complete Unknown is perhaps most titillating when it quietly observes moments between its central duo, two long-lost lovers hurling nearly two decades’ worth of unresolved pain at each other over the course of a single evening. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranSep 1, 2016
An intriguing entertainment that’s invigorated by smart filmmaking and potent acting by the virtuosic Weisz and her fine costar, Michael Shannon. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonSep 8, 2016
What the film has going for it is a terrific performance from Weisz, who renders Alice at once sympathetic and enigmatic. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaSep 2, 2016
There's a playlike quality to Complete Unknown (Marston's cowriter, Julian Sheppard, has extensive credits in the theater). That's not a bad thing: The talk is smart. The actors doing the talking are easy to like. Read full review
70
Screen DailyAnthony KaufmanJan 27, 2016
Refreshingly, there is no clichéd love story or illicit thriller that emerges; Marston is pursuing ideas that are far more personal and philosophical, about the masquerade of identity and what it means to that identity when you make a significant change in your life. Read full review
70
VarietyGuy LodgeJan 27, 2016
Luxuriously conversational in structure, it would make an outstanding stage play, and the two stars play it with chamber-piece rigor. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloAug 24, 2016
It’s as if a first-rate Roman Polanski movie suddenly metamorphosed (ohhh, frogs, duh) into a third-rate Michael Crichton adaptation. Read full review
67
The PlaylistNoel MurrayJan 27, 2016
Marston and Sheppard have come up with a terrific premise, and have worked it into an often highly entertaining movie. But after a while, all the narrative ellipses and question marks start to feel like an affectation — beguiling on the surface, but un-genuine. Read full review
67
ConsequenceMichael RoffmanJan 27, 2016
Something’s missing in Complete Unknown, and it’s a spiritual issue. The problem is that for this situation, the unlikely reunion, a natural approach restricts any and all sensationalism, which is why the ending neither bruises nor squeezes — it just lingers. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldSep 1, 2016
Because these actors are Weisz, on whose beautiful face emotions flicker like fireflies, and Shannon, whose faintly mournful expressions imply a profound story not yet told, the film is never less than interesting. Read full review
63
Washington PostStephanie MerrySep 1, 2016
Even if it’s not quite as thrilling as it first seems, Complete Unknown poses questions that practically beg for animated conversation about the fantasy of leaving it all behind — and what that might look like if someone actually did it, again and again. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTom RussoSep 1, 2016
The film comes across as an irksome contrivance. What’s meant to communicate the mysterious, even taboo allure of playing chameleon instead just leaves us scoffing. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChuck BowenAug 22, 2016
Underneath the impersonal formal beauty and good acting is a familiar moral about self-imposed limitations. Read full review
60
The GuardianLanre BakareJan 27, 2016
Unfortunately, with the big reveal having arrived in the first act, the film isn’t much more than an elongated debate that leaves you thinking: so what? Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJan 27, 2016
The movie's structure is peculiar, laying out a mystery and solving it early on, then spending half the film making us wonder how satisfying that solution was. Read full review
51
The VergeTasha RobinsonAug 29, 2016
The film never comes up with a mission statement or a message that might tie together its wandering scenes, or explain its vague melancholy. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 1, 2016
Much is promised and too little is delivered. What is delivered are intense performances by two terrific actors. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedAug 31, 2016
Directed by the accomplished Joshua Marston, who made the riveting "Maria Full of Grace," this one is slick and wonderful to look at but too slight to hold its own weight and too inconsequential to generate much suspense. Read full review
50
Village VoiceAbbey BenderAug 30, 2016
While [Rachel Weisz] is a compelling performer, the film is ultimately a Hitchcock-inspired thriller without too many real thrills. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyAug 26, 2016
The movie does pretty well as a treatment of identity and selfhood in a social landscape that grows increasingly alienating as it becomes more transparent. But it somehow fails to wholly satisfy. Read full review
50
The New York TimesAndy WebsterAug 25, 2016
Complete Unknown is a curious hybrid, teetering between a thriller and a romance only to land in a nebulous spot that is neither. Read full review
50
The Film StageDan MeccaJan 29, 2016
Armed with two top-notch leads and a compelling premise, Joshua Marston‘s third feature, Complete Unknown, spends a lot of time hinting at which direction it will go, without going anywhere at all. Read full review
42
IndieWireDavid EhrlichAug 23, 2016
The film’s best moments are hollow and derivative, as borrowed from better fictions as any of the names that Alice takes for herself. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzOct 13, 2016
Complete Unknown is the perfect case study of what happens when bad movies rope in good actors. In this case, it’s Rachel Weisz and Michael Shannon, two of the most talented performers working today, who get sucked into writer-director Joshua Marston’s vortex of nothingness. Read full review
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