No Such Thing
MGM/UA Home Entertainment | Release Date: March 29, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
36
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
14
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
The movie is not exactly an upper, but Hartley fans won't want to miss the latest creation of this consistently intelligent director. Read full review
60
SalonStephanie Zacharek
May be far from perfect, but those small, odd Hartley touches help you warm to it. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Hartley's most ambitious film, but it's also among his most uneven, shifting away at moments when its characters should be allowed to connect, underemphasizing some themes, overemphasizing others, and letting a general clash of ideas stand in for momentum. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
The film is little more than a stylish exercise in revisionism whose point -- we create, then destroy our own monsters in order to assure ourselves we're human -- is no doubt true, but serves as a rather thin moral to such a knowing fable. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
An uneasy mixture of tragedy, satire, monster yarn and David Cronenberg creepiness, No Such Thing can't decide what it wants to be or how it needs to get there. Read full review
50
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Burke's face is impressively scaly, his head is adorned with shorn horns. He makes a great monster. If only he had a better movie to growl in! Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Not everyone, for sure, is going to be able or willing to go the distance in this ambitious but exceedingly offbeat epic, which is great-looking and has a sweeping romantic score by Hartley himself. Read full review
50
New York PostMegan Lehmann
If you've come to appreciate Hal Hartley's idiosyncratic style through films like "Flirt" and "The Unbelievable Truth," his take on the monster movie genre will intrigue you. But, ultimately, disappoint you. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Less an American product than an international escapade, it's the kind of pigeonhole-resisting romp that Hollywood too rarely provides. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Hartley's loquacity and arguable pretentiousness are stemmed by his sense of play. Even when they run afoul, his movies still have the conviction of their fun. No Such Thing barely has any convictions at all. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Hartley is trapped between sincerity and mock sincerity, and that all but dooms a filmmaker to slipping through the cracks. Read full review
40
New Times (L.A.)Andy Klein
The underlying theme constantly changes shape, not in a way that seems rich in ambiguity, but in a way that seems poorly worked out. Read full review
40
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Does he (Hartley) succeed? Not with a movie this plodding, peevish and gimmicky. Is it fun to watch him try? Me, I'll take failed ambition over hack efficiency any day. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
More abrasively quirky than a lesser Bjork B-side, though the hideous monster who co-stars hails from Iceland, too. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMark Holcomb
Thematic muddle aside, the film's appeal lies in Burke's ranting charisma, Julie Christie's thankless turn as a sympathetic doctor, and Michael Spiller's radiant cinematography, which frequently captures the mythic grandeur that eludes Hartley's narrative grasp. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The film's pace is just plain wacky, moving with the haste of a receding glacier most of the time, but then jumping ahead as if Hartley hit the gas on a time machine. Read full review
30
Film ThreatChris Gore
Yes, the film is an allegorical modern fairy tale with plenty of pretty obvious social commentary, but if I can't identify with one character or be made to care, then what's the point? Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
No Such Thing is inexplicable, shapeless, dull. It doesn't even rise to entertaining badness. Read full review
20
L.A. WeeklyRon Stringer
Fails in so many respects, even die-hard constituents may have trouble learning to like it. Read full review
20
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Seems more theatrical than cinematic, needing the kind of direct address that only a stage can provide. Read full review
10
VarietyDerek Elley
Deadly dull in stretches, and just plain embarrassing in others. Read full review
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