Esther Kahn
Bac Films | Release Date: March 1, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
46
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
6
Negative:
3

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Summer Phoenix has a screen presence that's simultaneously distancing and transfixing, an inscrutability that makes her seem either mysterious or a complete blank. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Ranks among the best films ever made about the acting profession. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Begins as a shadowy film that progresses from dark to increasing light. It has been stunningly photographed by Eric Gautier and has a wonderfully expressive score composed by Howard Shore. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyManohla Dargis
Brilliantly edited and gorgeously shot, Esther Kahn is a dream to look at and, courtesy of Howard Shore's minor chords and high-strung strings, definitely something to hear. Read full review
60
New Times (L.A.)David Ehrenstein
At 145 minutes it's a bit of a stretch, but the cinematographer is the great Eric Gautier ("Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train," "Pola X") and the score by Howard Shore is far superior to his Oscar-winning "Lord of the Rings."
50
SlateDavid Edelstein
It's a charcoal draft of a movie -- magically allusive on some levels and utterly opaque on others, a strange combination of the overexplicit and the unwritten. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Desplechin wants to film an adventure of the human spirit in the manner of a Hitchcockian drama, but he doesn't have a solid enough grasp of English culture to equal the complexity of his French productions like "The Sentinel" and "The Life of the Dead." Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
A draggy shaggy-dog story about a poor Jewish girl's painfully slow emotional awakening. The movie is 145 minutes long, so by the time Esther's awake, the audience may not be as lucky.
40
The New York TimesDana Stevens
It is also possible that the problem lies not with Mr. Desplechin but with Ms. Phoenix. Her Esther is a fascinating mixture of passivity and ferocity, but it's not clear that she has the range to show both sides of the character. Read full review
30
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
This is a movie about the nature of acting -- or, more specifically, the nature that creates an actress -- centered on what appears to be a spectacularly unconvincing title-role performance. Read full review
20
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Senselessly long at two-and-three-quarters hours and with a protracted climax that eradicates any goodwill established in the fastidious first couple of reels. Read full review
12
New York PostMegan Lehmann
How do you inject life into a film whose central character is dull, slow, stupid and grim?If you're Arnaud Desplechin, you don't. Read full review
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