Love Crime
Sundance Selects | Release Date: September 2, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
10
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSep 8, 2011
The goal of this review - why not just say it? - is to disclose as little about the story as possible while instilling a ravenous and even rabid desire to see Love Crime immediately. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaSep 22, 2011
Like some murderous version of "Working Girl," the ruthless exec and the seemingly naive underling go at one another - turning the film, at a pivotal moment, into a satisfying whodunit. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonSep 1, 2011
A delicious thriller that gets under the skin à la "All About Eve," albeit with a twist: The craft here is still theater, but of the workplace rather than the stage. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanOct 6, 2011
The movie is called Love Crime. But its hidden message has more to do with business than with passion. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Especially one in a power suit, who knows how to work a room. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSep 22, 2011
Scott Thomas can play these sorts of ice queens in her sleep, but I've long thought she's a more effective and nuanced performer in French-language projects than in English-language ones. The performance is laced with just enough wit to make it sting. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertSep 21, 2011
One of the pleasures is watching the gears mesh. The screenplay has been written by Corneau and Nathalie Carter with meticulous attention to detail. Like classic mystery authors, they play fair, so that the surprises at the end are consistent with what we've seen - although we didn't realize it at the time. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. MusettoSep 2, 2011
Brings to mind "Working Girl" and "The Devil Wears Prada" -- but it has delightful differences only the French could conjure up, plus a musical soundtrack from jazz saxophone great Pharoah Sanders. Read full review
70
VarietyJordan MintzerSep 2, 2011
Picture initially suggests a sort of Gallic "Damages," with Kristin Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier in the Glenn Close and Rose Byrne roles, but the corporate catfight soon gives way to a cleverly designed whodunit. Read full review
70
MovielineAlison WillmoreSep 2, 2011
Despite this provocative introduction Love Crime isn't some Sapphic French answer to "Disclosure." Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottSep 1, 2011
It is interesting and ingenious, even if some of the kinky, queasy fascination that had been so intoxicating in the earlier scenes ebbs away. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerSep 10, 2011
It's all tease in the first half, and all implausibilities in the second. Still, Thomas is always worth watching, in French or in English, whether her mood be chilly or tropical. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterBernard BesserglikSep 2, 2011
Love Crime has Hitchcockian pretentious, with perhaps a touch of film noir, but the "love" component is perfunctorily done and the "crime" pay-off is unconvincing (despite the twist in the tail). The Master would not have allowed the suspense to dissipate so wantonly. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfAug 30, 2011
Love Crime soon plummets into a flashback-laden mess, a shame since it was marginally stronger as a psychosexual game of dominance. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayAug 31, 2011
A corporate crime thriller that explores the relationships of women in power, but while Corneau delivers a slick, well-acted piece with a surprising mid-movie twist, Love Crime is too thin and too on-point to deliver the jolt he and co-screenwriter Nathalie Carter most likely intended. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisOct 6, 2011
This is a ridiculous movie - a thriller so indifferent to suspense, so above mystery that one character literally stabs another in the front. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesSep 22, 2011
There's something wrong with a suspense film when the sets are more interesting than the characters. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedSep 6, 2011
The two-handed duet at the center of Love Crime radiates, but the parade of easily parodied men who stomp in and out of their corporate offices just seem like script rejects from "Mad Men." Read full review
50
NPRScott TobiasSep 2, 2011
The lack of authenticity underlines the thinness of their conceit: Without a plausible backdrop, all that's left of Love Crime are the power games between two duplicitous women and the serpentine plotting that results. And even that, under the slightest scrutiny, frays like a thin layer of tissue paper. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonAug 30, 2011
Even KST is left floundering as the misconceived, underwritten totem of today's amoral, power-mad executive, wearing flowing trousers and medallion necklaces not seen since Faye Dunaway demanded a meeting in "Network." Read full review
50
Slant MagazineAndrew SchenkerAug 27, 2011
The film is less corporate parable than intricately crafted revenge drama whose intensively detailed plotting can't hide the fact that the whole thing seems like a lot of work for a glaringly modest payoff. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe DziemianowiczSep 2, 2011
More cold fish than cold-blooded, director Alain Correau keeps his movie buttoned up and predictable. Read full review
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