Fateless
THINKFilm | Release Date: January 6, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
87
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
This is a Holocaust movie that is so relentlessly observed and so aware of woe that it never feels like it belongs to a genre. Read full review
100
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
This exceptional film features some of the most beautiful cinematography ever seen on film, in service of some of the most horrible images imaginable. Read full review
100
New York PostKyle Smith
Profound and majestic. Read full review
100
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
One of the greatest of all Holocaust films. Read full review
100
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
A hauntingly poetic triumph. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
In the juxtaposition of cataclysmic matter-of-fact misery and cinematic poetry, the filmmaker finds a calmly stunning way to convey the experience of living with death as something intimate, and, unnervingly, almost natural. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Fateless is a strangely beautiful film, enhanced by a typically lyrical Ennio Morricone score and by Koltai's hazy, grayed-out images. Read full review
90
VarietyEddie Cockrell
Exquisitely modulated and superbly mounted, the directing debut of skilled cinematographer Lajos Koltai went through an extended, unpredictable production history to emerge as a genuinely new way of looking at the Holocaust that is markedly different in tone from other such stories including "Schindler's List" and "The Pianist." Read full review
90
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Fateless has a remarkable absence of sentimentality. The movie is obviously artistic, but there are no cheap or superfluous effects. It's almost mystically translucent. Read full review
90
The New York TimesDana Stevens
It represents something stranger and, to those of us with only a secondhand or thirdhand knowledge of that history, more disturbing: a survivor's conviction that there were aspects of the experience itself that can only be described as beautiful. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck
Fateless is both haunting and poetic. It also is visually stunning. Read full review
90
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Like "The Pianist," Fateless painstakingly builds up the reality of what it is like to be drawn into a perfectly arbitrary hell you can neither comprehend nor rationalize. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
A first-rate contribution to the Holocaust canon. Read full review
90
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Koltai is an accomplished, Oscar-nominated cinematographer (for 2000's "Malena"), and Fateless is meticulously composed and shot. Read full review
90
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
It contains little that will be new to any informed viewer; yet it fascinates for all of its 140 minutes. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
This unique and devastating look at the Holocaust is drawn from the autobiographical novel of 2002 Nobel Prize winner Imre Kertesz. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
It's a work that sears the heart and conscience. The events are annihilating, the way they're told both beautiful and terrifying. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Fateless looks man's inhumanity to man square in the eye and pronounces it standard operating procedure, and that may be the greater horror. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldMarta Barber
The film never lacks dignity. Fateless doesn't look at life at the camp like Roberto Benigni did in "Life is Beautiful." Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
At first startling, even disengaging, that strange style eventually dovetails with the awful substance. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
Accomplishes the near impossible, bringing a fresh perspective to a horrific subject. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The film's power also lies in the honesty of its observation. Though Gyuri survives unfathomable horrors, he can't forget them and, in the end, doesn't want to. They're the only history he has.
60
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Long, heavy, and not particularly edifying Holocaust drama. Read full review
60
Dallas ObserverJean Oppenheimer
Viewers still need a window into a character's soul if they are to connect on a deep emotional level. And that is missing here. Read full review
60
EmpireSteve O'Hagan
Holocaust drama shot like costume drama, creating a sense of aesthetic disharmony. Read full review
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