The Desperate Hour
Vertical Entertainment | Release Date: February 25, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
35
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
10
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Film ThreatHanna B.Oct 13, 2021
In the end, I’m not sure if thriller, drama, or action would be best suited to describe Lakewood. Maybe it is not quite the edge-of-the-seat movie one might expect, but it is entertaining enough to keep one fully engaged. Read full review
75
ObserverSiddhant Adlakha
The filmmaking works in and of itself, but that Lakewood feels so emotionally in tune with its lead actress is a feat all on its own. Read full review
70
Screen DailyAllan HunterSep 14, 2021
Directed with brisk efficiency by Philip Noyce, the mix of adrenaline-rush emotion, manipulative melodrama and moralising is surprisingly entertaining in the moment. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 3, 2022
And “iPhone ad” or not, watching Watts power through this picture with nothing jogging togs and Apple’s pride and joy has me sold. Maybe I’ve bought my last Android after all. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Johanna SchnellerSep 15, 2021
The chance to say something new or revealing about school shooters is squandered, and all the urgent reality runs out. Read full review
60
Paste MagazineAurora AmidonFeb 25, 2022
The Desperate Hour, while consistently entertaining and confidently boasting a tight, no-frills script, fights too hard to explain that it does not exist purely by virtue of it being a fun kind of story to tell. Read full review
54
PolygonOli WelshFeb 28, 2022
Watts is fantastic in the film. She excels at desperation and confusion, and she knows how to show naked, raw fragility while disclosing an iron inner strength that’s almost frightening. The film depends on these qualities completely. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 25, 2022
Even if the idea of The Desperate Hour makes you uneasy, you will be engrossed by it. Read full review
50
Original-CinLiam LaceyFeb 25, 2022
As the film progresses, the idea of using a school shooting as a subject for a thriller feels deeply ill-conceived, undermining the gravity of the subject it attempts to address. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 24, 2022
Desperate Hour is well-intentioned, and there are flashes of genuine dramatic tension, thanks to Watts’ performance. Mostly, though, it feels contrived and heavy-handed, with nothing really new to say about this well-traveled subject matter. Read full review
42
The Film StageJared Mobarak
While Noyce and Watts try their best to ramp up tension, Sparling’s foundation proves too flimsy to comply. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinFeb 26, 2022
At least Watts’s bright-eyed charisma and obvious commitment passes the time – while director Phillip Noyce, who also had Angelina Jolie running for her life in 2010’s Salt, does his best to keep things visually fresh. Read full review
40
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaSep 14, 2021
I'm sure Lakewood had its heart in the right place, and Watts, gosh love her, is really trying, since she's pretty much the only person on screen for most of the movie. But every step Amy takes towards the school is another misstep the movie makes, and by the time she gets to her destination, we've already mentally checked out. Read full review
40
VarietyOwen GleibermanSep 14, 2021
Watts’ commitment holds the movie together. She acts as if that phone were her flesh-and-blood partner. But it’s not. It’s a device impersonating something human. And so is Lakewood. Read full review
40
The GuardianBenjamin Lee
Before things go south, there’s an effectively clammy escalation of panic as Watts leaps from call to call . . . But the script, from Chris Sparling . . . isn’t quite ingenious enough to find ways to involve her in the drama. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzFeb 25, 2022
Once in a while, you see a film where it's clear that everyone involved is operating at the peak of of their skills, yet the whole is so misguided that the result is still awful. Such is The Desperate Hour. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeFore
A case study in how storytelling contrivances can sabotage a courageously vulnerable performance, the movie addresses American parents’ deepest fears but is just one or two steps away from inviting ritualized communal mockery, à la The Room, at midnight screenings. Read full review
25
The Associated PressMark KennedyFeb 24, 2022
As an acting exercise, it’s intriguing — barely any scene partners and all unfolding in real time. As a film, not so much: After a plodding, placid start, it goes from first gear into fifth and never relents as the woes pile on. Read full review
25
The PlaylistMarya E. GatesSep 14, 2021
Philip Noyce is a natural choice for this kind of film. He’s great with actresses in peril and at keeping tension ramped up to eleven. But using the collective trauma of a generation of parents and children as the backdrop for a real-time thriller, whose lives have proven time and again to matter less than the right to own an AK-47, remains unconscionably distasteful. Read full review
25
TheWrapRobert AbeleSep 14, 2021
A crisis scenario striving for issue-driven importance that should have paid more attention to its dull suspense mechanics, slapdash style, and implausibility. Read full review
20
Screen RantSarah Bea MilnerMar 3, 2022
Is The Desperate Hour tedious and dull? Without question, yes. The real issue, however, is that the subject matter is so inappropriate for this kind of story that the entire movie-viewing experience is tinged with a sickening hue. Read full review
16
IndieWireKristen Lopez
[A] maudlin, truly terrible thriller that relies far too heavily on manipulation and narrative revision to deliver a “message” that we don’t need to be spelled out for us. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineDerek SmithFeb 24, 2022
The Desperate Hour’s broad, vague rendering of its characters is part and parcel of its troubling approach to its material. Read full review
10
The New York TimesWesley MorrisFeb 25, 2022
The only thing I want less than a thriller about a school shooting is a thriller whose other main character is the main character’s iPhone. Read full review
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