Don't Let Go
OTL Releasing | Release Date: August 30, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
49
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
15
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubAug 28, 2019
It’s a good sign for the intelligence of your science fiction movie, when it’s easy to imagine the story working as a stage play with just two actors. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJul 25, 2019
Estes finds a way to twist things up, organically adding a Groundhog Day element. Time's still moving forward toward Ashley's death, but the detective work gets more interesting. Read full review
70
Screen DailyAnthony KaufmanJul 25, 2019
Estes handily pumps up the tension, and keeps the story moving along at a brisk pace. There may be nothing particularly memorable about the filmmaking on display, but Relive is focused mostly on its actors. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerAug 30, 2019
It’s a fascinating ticking clock, and it works because Oyelowo leads the way as the brokenhearted survivor. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldAug 29, 2019
The film’s better than you’d expect from a late-summer offering, mostly due to a strong cast led by the great Oyelowo. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 28, 2019
But it’s as much fun as a dumb time-travel murder mystery/cop thriller has any right to be. Just don’t let it keep you up at night sorting through it all, again, the way the folks who take notes (critics) have to. It’ll spoil it. Read full review
63
TheWrapYolanda MachadoJul 25, 2019
Despite its trappings, Relive is a family drama with a slight supernatural twist, and had Estes explored that, perhaps the film would feel more whole. Instead, Relive winds up being a thriller without any actual thrills. Read full review
60
Film ThreatLorry KiktaOct 24, 2019
It’s definitely a well-crafted genre offering. The writing could be better, with more of an emphasis on the relationships than on the plot mechanisms, but the ending is cool. The cast is also very good, but again, if the script were just a tad bit better, the film would get a better rating from me. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisAug 29, 2019
You get lost in its thickets because Estes hasn’t wholly figured out how to make toying with time work. But he has a fine cast and a good sense of place, including a feel for the spookiness of emptied-out spaces, and he makes his conspicuously low budget work for the near-claustrophobic intimacy. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelAug 28, 2019
The plot is ingeniously engineered, but the narrative is like a low-res image. It gets the idea across, but without the kind of details that make it memorable. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineHenry StewartAug 30, 2019
Would that Jacob Estes had kept the particulars of his murder mystery as intricate as the sci-fi of his main characters’ communion. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyAug 30, 2019
It's a disappointment when so much goes unexplored, when the film bows to the demands of a cliched plot driving the story forward. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 29, 2019
Working with time travel is never an easy task and, when a filmmaker doesn’t take a rigorous, consistent approach, it can become a mess. Such is the case with Don’t Let Go. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 29, 2019
Even accepting the increasingly dizzying level of logic-defying, mind-effing, increasingly convoluted time-bending developments in the entertainingly bad (but still bad) Don’t Let Go, I found myself wondering why and how. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanAug 28, 2019
Don’t Let Go manages, at times, to generate a nicely weird “Twilight Zone” vibe, but fails to sustain it, as it also runs into some of the same problems that plague movies of this ilk: If you tear the fabric of time by altering what has already happened, it can be difficult to sew it back up straight. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyAug 28, 2019
What keeps Don’t Let Go watchable is, ironically, its predictability: the cop-movie clichés, the shootouts, the mishandled evidence, the bargain-bin twists. Read full review
50
VarietyPeter DebrugeJul 25, 2019
With any luck, Relive will get a reboot down the road, in which someone takes better advantage of the basic idea. Read full review
42
The PlaylistJason BaileyJul 25, 2019
The problem is Estes’ script. There are some real clunkers twisting around in the dialogue, and this viewer was way ahead of its big twists (and I never figure out big twists). Read full review
40
The GuardianCath ClarkeSep 26, 2019
Even with an intelligent, credible performance by David Oyelowo, the daftness and utter implausibility of a smartphone so smart it can make calls to the future is overwhelming. Read full review
40
EmpireIan FreerSep 25, 2019
On paper, Don’t Let Go’s premise — a supernaturally flecked crime story with a hint of time travel — should be exciting but it is let down down by workaday writing and routine filmmaking. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshAug 29, 2019
The time-traveling investigation is indeed optimistic, but in reality and execution, it’s just magical thinking wrapped up in a fussy, overly convoluted plot. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Angelica Jade BastienAug 29, 2019
Don’t Let Go is a slog. I wish it loosened up, better balanced the potential fear, joy, wonder, and delight spooling out of its premise to yield a more adventurous result. Instead, it carries itself with dread and stilted seriousness, alleviated only by noteworthy performances from Reid and Oyelowo. Read full review
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