The Face of an Angel
Screen Media Films | Release Date: June 19, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
37
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
9
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Slant MagazineClayton DillardJun 13, 2015
Michael Winterbottom's film is a mess of tones, but not of ideas, which could well sum up the director's prodigious but uneven oeuvre. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniJun 19, 2015
Winterbottom's films never bore. They do sometimes frustrate, provoke - even anger. That's the case with his entry in the true-story genre, The Face of an Angel. Read full review
60
EmpireIan NathanMar 23, 2015
On one level a fascinating refraction of the Amanda Knox trial into an examination of perception, on another an increasingly trying hall of mirrors. Read full review
60
CineVueBen NicholsonMar 6, 2015
Winterbottom's The Face of an Angel makes for compelling viewing, painting an arresting character portrait even if it avoids the direct engagement with the original (and much-discussed) crime that some people may have been expecting. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJun 18, 2015
Occasionally Winterbottom delivers a haunting, effective moment, giving a hint of a different, more compelling film. But then it’s back to the self-righteous, self-indulgent, muddled metaphors. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJun 17, 2015
Past Winterbottom films have turned “real life” into both comedy and tragedy. The Face Of An Angel turns it into a directionless skulk. Read full review
50
Village VoiceSimon AbramsJun 16, 2015
The Face of an Angel may not be like any other whodunit you've seen, but it's also only superficially smarter than the genre it defines itself against. Read full review
42
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthMar 6, 2015
The idea of turning a true crime story into a intellectual cinematic exercise is novel, and could be witty and sharp, but 'Angel' never comes across that way. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJun 22, 2015
The film does occasionally show a pulse when it tries to reimagine the life of the victim — it turns the tables on the mystery and tries to become a film about love and life instead of doom and death. But it’s too little, too late, and too lame. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinJun 18, 2015
Like the floundering filmmaker at its center, The Face of an Angel never seems sure of what story it wants to tell. Read full review
40
The TelegraphMike McCahillMar 26, 2015
Winterbottom’s shapeshifting spontaneity has long seemed as much limitation as virtue, characteristic of a filmmaker unable or unwilling to commit to his own better ideas. Here, you feel him hedging around his subject, less out of sensitivity than a constitutional evasiveness, an inability to formulate a clear line of argument. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyJun 19, 2015
To get at the heart of what’s wrong with The Face of an Angel all you need to do is consider the professional stones it takes to adapt the Amanda Knox case into yet another movie about the existential/amorous crises of a white male filmmaker. (And then have the nerve to dedicate the results to the memory of the murder-victim in the real-life case!) Read full review
35
TheWrapTim AppeloJun 16, 2015
The Face of an Angel is opaque in every way. Winterbottom will make another great movie. But if he didn’t want to make the Amanda Knox story, why did he so halfheartedly try? Read full review
30
The DissolveScott TobiasJun 18, 2015
Virtually nothing happens in the film that enhances viewers’ understanding of the situation. Winterbottom and company merely survey the scene, kick around a few half-assed moments of atmosphere and suspense, shrug their shoulders, and pack it in for the night. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerJun 16, 2015
Winterbottom is not out to thrill, but to lecture on the truth, which, he believes, can only be found in fiction. Read full review
20
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisJun 18, 2015
Rambling, frustrating and wholly uninvolving, The Face of an Angel (based on Barbie Latza Nadeau’s nonfiction account of the murder) swarms with ideas that have no place to land. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsStephen WhittyJun 17, 2015
How do you make one of the decade’s most sensational crimes boring? It’s an odd trick, but director Michael Winterbottom manages it in The Face of an Angel, a stubbornly dull retelling of the famous Italian case. Read full review
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