Earthquake Bird
Netflix | Release Date: November 1, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
7
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
PolygonKaren HanNov 25, 2019
All three leads are terrific — especially Vikander, whose Japanese is impressive — but they’re working with material that doesn’t measure up to their talents. Read full review
70
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganOct 26, 2019
Everyone here appears to be revelling in the juicy opportunities Earthquake Bird brings to hit up our memories of everything from Fatal Attraction to Single White Female. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 19, 2019
But even if this film of a Susanna Jones novel makes a middling whodunit, it’s still a fine vehicle for Vikander, an actress of quiet reserve and inner fury. She and the exotic setting lift Earthquake Bird, even if it never fully takes flight. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawNov 1, 2019
I was less taken with the wait-is-this-really-happening moments that tend to undermine the emotional currency in which the drama is presented to us. Some real tremors, though. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeOct 31, 2019
Westmoreland approaches the project every bit as respectful toward Japanese customs as Jones was, although only a percentage of her insights carry over to the film. They’re still there, mind you, but more difficult to detect. Read full review
58
IndieWireDavid EhrlichNov 15, 2019
While too muddled and morose to hold together as a psychosexual thriller, Wash Westmoreland’s Earthquake Bird can be compelling for how it both explores and subverts the idea that everyone gets a little bit lost in translation. Read full review
50
IGNKristy PuchkoNov 14, 2019
Netflix's Earthquake Bird is a not particularly engaging thriller featuring an inert performance from Alicia Vikander. Read full review
50
The New York TimesGlenn KennyNov 7, 2019
For all its consideration, while Earthquake Bird adds up to a “real” movie, it’s too polite to add up to an entirely compelling one. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleOct 31, 2019
Try as he might, Westmoreland can’t muster the same portraiture skills with a woman of mystery and brokenness that he’s shown with bold, expressive types (“Still Alice,” “Colette”). Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonOct 10, 2019
This solidly crafted Ridley Scott production is sprinkled with classy ingredients, including Alicia Vikander as headline star. But it is also a fairly flat treatment of over-familiar plot elements, and fatally low on the key psycho-thriller elements of suspense, surprise and dread. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoNov 15, 2019
It takes great effort to find what interested director Wash Westmoreland and company in the source material in the first place, but it feels like a project that reaffirms something I’ve long argued: just because something works in one medium doesn’t mean it will in another. Read full review
20
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiNov 4, 2019
It’s almost a romantic melodrama, but it’s emotionally inert. It’s almost a biting statement about cultural appropriation, but it barely shows its fangs. It’s almost a murder mystery, but it abandons the plot for vast periods of time. It’s almost a good film except, no, that’s really stretching it. At its best it’s an unfocused plod. Read full review
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