Dolls
Palm Pictures | Release Date: December 10, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The overall mood is stately and melancholy, the selective use of color is ravishing, and some of the natural views are breathtaking. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
As an exception to the norm, Kitano doesn't appear this time, confining himself merely to writing, directing, and editing. Read full review
80
Film ThreatDarrin Keene
The cinematography is stunning, particularly where Matsumoto and Sawoko walk through the four seasons of life. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Kitano's gentle side reigns in Dolls, a gorgeous meditation on love and devotion, but the film's hypnotic tone and beautifully formalized color scheme makes it unlike anything he's done to date. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Lush and poetic, Dolls proves once again that Kitano is one of the world's most original filmmakers. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A work both rigorously stylized and deeply personal. Devotees of Kitano and Japanese cinema will admire Dolls. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Dolls isn't a film for everybody, especially the impatient, but Kitano does succeed, I think, in drawing us into his tempo and his world, and slowing us down into the sadness of his characters. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Dolls is an art film, and a languid, inexplicably haunting one at that. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen Johnson
Colorful and sweeping. Read full review
70
VarietyDavid Rooney
Despite an excessively meandering final act, the drama's three intertwined stories have a cumulative impact, their affecting sadness matched by meticulously composed visual poetry. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
With some staggeringly beautiful photography of cherry blossoms and scarlet autumn leaves, Dolls is so enthralled with its own cinematography that it can't bear to edit itself, and during the autumn and winter segments of the bound beggars' journey, it almost reaches a standstill. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
The movie's pace is appropriate to its mood, which is crisp, melancholy and gently cruel. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsRobert Dominguez
Rife with beautiful imagery and loads of symbolism, though none of the stories is particularly compelling on its own. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Whether this measured exercise in romantic melancholy moves you to tears or bores you to them is probably a matter of personal susceptibility to the sting of bitter regret for love lost. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Dolls risks the bank on symbology as gaudy as teen anime and as heavy as a stone temple. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterRichard James Havis
Dolls soon becomes overloaded with symbolism, and consequently suffocates the audience. Read full review
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