Fierce People
Autonomous Films | Release Date: September 7, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
54
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
9
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The film is worthwhile primarily for the fun, breezy first hour. After that, it's a case of watching to find out how things turn out. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle Smith
Director Griffin Dunne's adaptation of Dirk Wittenborn's fiercely personal novel ambles pleasantly through coming-of-age movie territory, then takes a jarring Agatha Christie detour. Read full review
70
VarietyRonnie Scheib
Whenever Sutherland comes on scene, any inadequacies in the film's depiction of the well-to-do become irrelevant. Read full review
70
Village VoiceScott Foundas
Whereas most of the injustices suffered by "Nanny's" nanny are of the skin-deep variety, the hopelessly reductive Fierce People ups the ante. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubStaff (Not credited)
Fierce People's first hour is dominated by brittle social satire, but in its third act, the film takes a jarring turn toward tremblingly sincere melodrama it can't pull off. Read full review
60
The New York TimesStephen Holden
When F. Scott Fitzgerald remarked that the rich “are different from you and me,” he might have been thinking of someone like the moody billionaire from Fierce People. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Not even the always reliable Diane Lane can save this one. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
What might have read as a dense allegory comparing the rituals of the super-rich with the tribal customs of the violent Ishkanani tribe in the Amazon becomes a tedious, over-ripe soap opera on screen. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert Abele
Dunne and Wittenborn, who adapted his book, work too hard at stressing just how ruthless the unspoken standards of the stinking rich can be, leading to a story-pivoting act of brutality toward Finn that careens the movie into a tonal wilderness that it never recovers from. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneTasha Robinson
The idea that rich people are an alien tribe is just one of many that get lost in Wittenborn’s distracted script. Instead of exploring the concept, he throws out random incidents until he hits one that sends the film into a dark, grotesque spiral. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerBill White
Fierce People is no ordinary dud. This seedy soap opera is the most outlandish, campy romp through the mud since "Showgirls." Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
When the tone goes from daffy to dour in the course of a harrowing plot point, the story becomes more forced than fierce. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The platitudes in this gratuitously sentimental movie are taken a lot more seriously than the people. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJoshua Katzman
Never recovers from a jarring and improbable act of ritualized violence that occurs halfway through the film. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleSteve Winn
Plays like a movie that some teenage boy cooked up in his chemistry lab. There are lots of potent things floating around in it - sexual initiation, drugs, fantasy-land wealth, brute violence, primitive rituals, Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland - but the mix just sits there without producing any notable reactions. Read full review
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