O
Lions Gate Films | Release Date: August 31, 2001 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
10
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Sensitive and vivid response to the tangled issues of teen violence, race and self-esteem. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
Exceptionally intelligent and powerful contemporary adaptation. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMark Caro
A sign of O's effectiveness is that it works regardless of whether you know Shakespeare's play.
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
To an astonishing degree, O gets the tragic Shakespeare mood, that somber stentorian passion born of hidden slivers of ambition and betrayal. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The filmmakers have a vision of the way Shakespeare can be made vibrant and vital to modern viewers, with or without the lofty original dialogue. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
O has one advantage over "Othello" -- since it's a new movie, not a classic, it has the power to surprise. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
This is a serious and well-acted drama, not a jokey ripoff, whose relevance (however distant) to Columbine is a plus. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A good film for most of the way, and then a powerful film at the end, when, in the traditional Shakespearean manner, all of the plot threads come together, the victims are killed, the survivors mourn, and life goes on. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Artful and emotionally compelling. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Essential to the success it manages is Hartnett's low-key, charismatic performance -- cool, withholding, compelling. The triumph of his insinuating Hugo/Iago is how plausible he is, how he manages to convincingly inject poison in so many minds without seeming to be trying. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
What O lacks is a sense of spontaneity: Despite its contemporary dialogue and manner, the movie can't overcome a nagging aura of artifice. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Stripped of its poetry, some of the devices of the tragedy of the Moor come off here as woefully contrived. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeJay Carr
The film collapses under the weight of the effort to shoehorn Shakespeare's story into a context that ultimately doesn't accommodate it.
60
Mr. ShowbizKevin Maynard
Too much of a locker-room melodrama to make for great tragedy.
60
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Every character fated to die in Othello meets his or her maker by the time the curtain falls on Blake's adaptation, which means the manicured campus of Palmetto Grove is left littered with slain coeds. Read full review
50
Washington PostRita Kempley
Everything has been modernized except for the characters, and that's this movie's tragic flaw. Read full review
50
Washington PostDesson Thomson
A fairly ordinary drama about young love, basketball, petty jealousy and high school politics. The movie also has one of the goofiest, over-the-top finales in recent memory. Read full review
50
New Times (L.A.)Luke Y. Thompson
The film generally looks like a TV special, with low production values and lots of closeups. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
This turgid melodrama fast-breaks away from the heart of its own subject. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAmy Taubin
Had Nelson and Kaaya been less concerned with following Othello to the letter and rather had pursued this love affair into uncharted cinematic waters, O might have been more than an unresolved mixture of gimmickry and good intentions. Read full review
40
NewsweekDavid Ansen
The actors attack their roles with commitment (Hartnett’s understatement is impressive), but their fervor can’t hide the movie’s implausible, often confusing storytelling. Read full review
40
TimeRichard Schickel
On your already groaning Shakespeare for Teens video shelf, stack this one above "10 Things I Hate About You" (a.k.a. "The Taming of the Shrew") and quite a bit below "Romeo + Juliet." Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
In trying to make "Othello" more lifelike and bring it down to a younger audience -- in effect, to make it more democratic -- the adaptation has rendered the material artless. Read full review
30
SalonCharles Taylor
The film is a plodding, earnest adaptation that strips the source of its richness and ambiguity. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
It's a doomy dirge of a movie, in which the protagonists, or at least the actors who play them, aren't equipped to handle their outsize passions. Read full review
20
L.A. WeeklyManohla Dargis
The makers of this malnourished teen drama haven't just dropped six letters from the title of Shakespeare's Othello, they have excised everything that gives the original its troubling power -- principally a point but also furious passion. Read full review
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