Human Capital
Film Movement | Release Date: January 14, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
9
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlJan 13, 2015
The biggest suspense: As everything gets worse for everyone, will this consummate director's outraged worldview afford anyone any pity? At first you'll seethe — then your heart will ache. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenJan 17, 2015
The film flirts with upper-class stereotypes, but in the nuanced writing and the work of the strong cast, led by a terrific Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, it goes far deeper. Read full review
80
The DissolveTasha RobinsonJan 13, 2015
What makes Human Capital a worthwhile experience is the way [Virzí] focuses on understanding his characters’ desires, rather than deriding them as unworthy. Read full review
80
VarietyJay WeissbergDec 8, 2014
A slick, stylish drama, Human Capital starts as a class critique wrapped around a whodunit, and though the mystery elements have overtaken the social assessment by the final third, the pic remains an engrossing, stinging look at aspirational parvenus and the super-rich they emulate. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungDec 8, 2014
The film is more than just a chic thriller. Alongside its clear -- at times overly so -- depiction the pain and vanity of social inequality, Virzi and the fine cast explore the unhappiness of rich and poor alike in a society that measures a person’s value in terms of euros. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezFeb 12, 2015
Not all of the characters in the movie get just and fair send-offs, but Virzi’s stylish picture argues that’s the price we pay when a capitalist society trains us to place our own selfish interests above everything else. It’s a rat race that ultimately has no winners. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineElise NakhnikianDec 8, 2014
Paolo Virzì's Human Capital gives the tired trope of cutting between overlapping stories a welcome shot of adrenaline, using it not just to compare and contrast tangentially related stories, but to show how people caught up in their private dramas can overlook or misinterpret the people around them. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesPatrick Z. McGavinApr 2, 2015
Virzi tends to illustrate his ideas rather than dramatically shape them, and what he has to say about money, power and the nature of greed is rarely invigorating. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayFeb 26, 2015
Human Capital is a well made but ultimately rather facile tragedy for the globalized age of vertiginous wealth disparities. It’s suffused with beauty, guilt, regret and impunity that only the most obscenely overprivileged and dimly self-aware can hope to attain. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithJan 15, 2015
Melding a morality play with a glossy soap, Italy’s Human Capital is a fairly successful balance of entertainment and ideas. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaFeb 19, 2015
The movie makes some observations about the worth of human life — the title refers to the monetary value put on the life of the injured waiter — and the economic class system, but they're not terribly interesting or surprising. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisJan 13, 2015
It’s all handsomely managed, polished and professional, but the pieces are too neatly manufactured to feel as if anything is truly at stake. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 8, 2014
It may be no more than the sum of its parts, and the slightly soap-operatic finale doesn’t entirely distract your attention from untied plot threads, but there is some great fancy footwork in the narrative and fierce satirical strokes that recall Tom Wolfe. Read full review
60
Total FilmSimon KinnearDec 8, 2014
Shame that the plotting favours narrative intrigue over character depth, creating a film whose message is witnessed rather than felt. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloJan 14, 2015
It’s the kind of sprawling, everything’s-connected moral tapestry that reached its nadir with Paul Haggis’ inexplicable Oscar winner Crash—not remotely as dire, thankfully, but with many of the same fundamental flaws. Read full review
50
Boston GlobePeter KeoughFeb 12, 2015
Though it initially shows signs of overcoming its creakiness, “Capital” loses value when its screenwriters try too hard to be clever. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzJan 15, 2015
This ensemble drama about troubled upper-middle class strivers is slick, confident, and rather empty, and structurally more self-defeating than clever. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonTrevor JohnstonDec 8, 2014
From Visconti and Pasolini through to I Am Love, Italian cinema has a proud tradition of dramatising class tensions, but this feels more like a TV soap lost on the big screen. The dividends are disappointing. Read full review
40
CineVueJohn BleasdaleDec 8, 2014
Although the thriller like approach makes the unveiling of the story intermittently interesting, Human Capital stumbles on its blandly predictable, two dimensional characters and the implausible melodrama of its latter stages. Read full review
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