The Aura
IFC First Take | Release Date: November 17, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
78
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Ricardo Darín, wearing a mild-mannered expression of emotional remove, plays the unnamed antihero, obsessed with imagining the perfect robbery. The ''aura'' is the clarity with which he sees -- or imagines he sees -- the world in moments preceding an epileptic attack. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
Sublime psychological thriller. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
The film is a sure winner for arthouse audiences enamored of the new Argentine cinema, but it has crossover appeal for venturesome viewers in search of a good mystery, as well. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Darin is an actor who's really consummate at suggesting two simultaneous levels of character. Read full review
80
VarietyJonathan Holland
The Aura is far from being simply "Nine Queens2." Leisurely paced, studied, reticent and rural, The Aura is a quieter, richer and better-looking piece that handles its multiple manipulations with the maturity the earlier picture sometimes lacked. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
This is a tremendously atmospheric movie full of moody mystery, and it'll keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Mr. Bielinsky, in what would sadly be his last film, demonstrates a mastery of the form that is downright scary. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Whereas "Nine Queens" was a movie of clockwork precision and blindsiding reversals, El Aura is more internalized and digressive but no less striking, in large part thanks to Darin's mesmerizing performance. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
The Aura holds together as a dreamy variation on "Reservoir Dogs'" heist-gone-wrong fatalism and the know-thyself confrontations of David Mamet's "Homicide." Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Bielinsky's "Nine Queens" was a complex romp through the machinations of high-stakes con artists, but this intricately plotted mystery ventures into darker psychological territory and never misses a step. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The tension and intrigue between the pretender and his would-be associates is as dense as the woods surrounding their hiding place. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The Aura is richer and less showy than "Nine Queens," and it lifts off from the gangster genre to contemplate deeper mysteries. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
It's less a deconstruction of the heist film than an ambitious contemplation of our fascination with the genre, directed with a dispassionate eye at a ruminative pace and centered by a queasily emotionless figure wading through a swamp of moral ambiguity. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jennie Punter
Its rhythm is deliberate and unhurried, yet the film is rich with detail and with small, meaningful character revelations -- the running time of more than two hours feels just right. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderReece Pendleton
While never boring and sometimes quite gripping, Bielinsky’s manneristic style becomes distracting; he seems more concerned with generating an ominous atmosphere than with telling a compelling story. Read full review
70
Film ThreatDon R. Lewis
While an enjoyable twist on the noir genre, a little more character development would have been nice. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Bielinsky is a most expressive director, achieving considerable nuances and depths of emotion with characters' looks, gestures, body language and silences. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJean Oppenheimer
A hypnotic unease hangs over the film. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid Wiegand
The careful camera work, beautifully dank cinematography and the quietly nuanced performance by Darín keep our attention, but in the end, the film's bigger challenge isn't its length, or its deliberate pace: It's that it's overly freighted with symbolism and meaning. Read full review
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