Our Lady of the Assassins
Paramount Classics | Release Date: September 7, 2001 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
As the film, with its haunting score and inspired use of popular music, builds flawlessly to its resounding conclusion, it is accompanied by a pitch-dark humor that grows out of the sheer absurdity of the city's daily body count. Read full review
90
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Setting it against the backdrop of a wanton city under siege, Schroeder crafts a film of whiplash urgency. Read full review
90
New Times (L.A.)David Ehrenstein
One of the most genuinely shocking films you'll ever see. Read full review
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
It's sad, funny, shocking and completely unlike any movie in a dozen years. Read full review
90
L.A. WeeklyErnest Hardy
A scathing, darkly funny political essay wrapped inside a tragic love story (or vice versa). Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
In a film overstuffed with tragedy, the most painful one might be the gradual transformation of Fernando's moral and intellectual indignation into a weary, cynical detachment. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeJay Carr
Plays like a dislocated version of ''Death in Venice,'' but in a dryer, higher climate that features exponentially more firepower.
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The film's title is appropriate. A desperate Catholicism flavors the doomed city. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Couldn't have succeeded had it been cast with movie stars. Its authenticity derives not only from the streets on which it was filmed but also from its able Colombian cast. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
The grimness of the movie becomes not only too unbearable, its point is clear about halfway through. After that, everything comes across as redundant retreading of the same perspective. But for atmosphere, great cinematography and eye-opening directness, this movie can't be beat. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderMark Peranson
Has its faults, but it's Barbet Schroeder's most relevant and interesting film in over a decade. Read full review
80
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Schroeder's first non-American film in 16 years feels like a rejuvenation; his adaptation of Fernando Vallejo's 1994 novel has a naturalistic freedom and ease that is both refreshing and direct in the way it tells a deeply disturbing story. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
By the end of the movie, the characters are numbed, while the audience is sensitized to the mayhem to an almost unbearable degree. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
A bracing ode to the city -- a place of aching beauty and poverty, encompassed by a disconcerting halo of ancient culture and modern nihilism. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
An utterly nihilistic, harrowingly upsetting vision of hell on earth. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
A marvelous film. Read full review
75
Chicago TribunePatrick Z. McGavin
The director's return home here parallels that of Fernando, metaphorically and artistically. Our Lady of the Assassins is a film of clarity, feeling and electric intensity.
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Rough, breathless adaptation of Fernando Vallejo's ferociously sardonic novel. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJessica Winter
The performances can be stiff, but a kinetic mix of anxiety, dread, and numbed resignation is always palpable. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The blend of chic histrionics and ultra-bright daylight imagery make much of the movie resemble a network soap opera with an on-location interlude. It looks as cheap as life is held in Medellin. Read full review
50
USA TodayMike Clark
The movie itself IS dull, however. The characters never engage our interest, and the relentless violence grows monotonous. Read full review
50
New York PostJonathan Foreman
Flat dialogue and stiff performances (especially by the street kids, like Ballesteros, turned into actors by Schroeder) don't help. Read full review
50
TimeRichard Schickel
Full of sacrilegious rant, absurdist affectlessness and pop social criticism, this film plays like an old B movie: narratively improvisational, delusionally pretentious, weirdly watchable. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The intimate love story is overwhelmed by the carnage. It may be an accurate picture of life in Medellin, but it's not convincing. Read full review
40
Mr. ShowbizMichael Atkinson
Far from creating a pungent portrait of a society gone mad with blood and greed, Schroeder's movie strives for political points while it's whiffing on simplicities like character, motivation, and believability.
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