Police, Adjective
IFC Films | Release Date: December 23, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
81
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Police, Adjective is a deadly serious as well as dryly humorous analysis of bureaucratic procedure and, particularly, the tyranny of language. Images may record reality, but words define it. Read full review
100
VarietyJay Weissberg
Porumboiu is one of the few helmers working today who so completely understands both the power of language and the power of visuals. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
It's not for all tastes; it requires some patience. The more your own job involves absurd, time-consuming bits of minutiae, the more familiar (and amusing) it'll seem. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Yet another outstanding little movie in the exciting Romanian New Wave. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
A simultaneously realistic and absurdist examination of police work. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The usual emphasis in a detective film is upended so that procedure, thrillingly, is more important than action. In its own way, this is one of the most intense cop movies you'll see. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
This cunning and provocative Romanian film requires patience, but its rewards are many: It's hard to imagine how a scene in which a police captain barks an order to bring him a dictionary can be loaded with suspense, but, really, it is. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
Although it's sly and sardonic, Police, Adjective is as rigorous as a tea ceremony -- or a Stalinist re-education camp. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
A clever, exceedingly wonky procedural about a undercover cop (Dragos Bucur) who quietly refuses to do what he's told. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
This intermittently terrific cerebral thriller does, indeed, hinge on the proper use of dictionary definitions, but the film is really about the oppressive blahness of small-town, postcommunist Romania. In such surroundings, parsing definitions can almost stand for high drama. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The climax, in which the detective's commanding officer gives him a dictionary and subjects him to a sort of linguistic browbeating, is a marvel of dead air and unspoken oppression. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Police, Adjective may not be the film you're expecting, but it's one that will stay on your mind. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
So much in this meticulous and moving film is between the lines, and almost nothing is by the book. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid Denby
The movie is simultaneously a police procedural, an analysis of language and imagery, a philosophical debate about law and justice, and a very, very dry Romanian Martini--so dry that, at first, one doesn't quite taste much of anything. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid Parkinson
A riveting slice of Romanian new wave drama, haunted by shadows of the Ceausescu era and never less than thought-provoking. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Though formally astringent, Police, Adjective is dotted with lots of humor. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Its surprisingly effective key scene involves an argument with his captain over the dictionary definitions of the words "conscience" and "justice." This may not sound exciting, but it was welcome after legions of cop movies in which such arguments are orchestrated with the f-word. Read full review
75
NPRMark Jenkins
Police, Adjective has considerable power, and the issues it raises linger in the mind. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter Addiego
Director Corneliu Porumboiu ("12:08 East to Bucharest"), with his deadpan style and probing intelligence, is someone to keep an eye on. Using a minimalist style, and possessing the courage to risk alienating his viewers, he has created a movie full of resonance. Read full review
75
Washington PostStaff (Not credited)
Like a dark-comedy sequel to the masterful German film "The Lives of Others," Corneliu Porumboiu's Police, Adjective gives viewers a penetrating glimpse of surveillance culture, in this case as it plays out in post-communist Romania. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
For all the inactivity and resistance that mark the plot, there's beauty in the filmmaking and a kind of dazzling inevitability to the unwinding of the tale. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The movie comes on like a put-on--next to nothing happens for an excruciatingly long time--and ends as a fascinating dialectic between following one's conscience or following the law. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua Rothkopf
Shockingly dull. Read full review
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