The Girl Cut in Two
IFC Films | Release Date: August 15, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Impeccably made and uncompromisingly adult, Claude Chabrol's A Girl Cut in Two is unquestionably the work of a master. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
An erotically charged, beautifully directed story of a woman preyed upon by different men and her own warring desires. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Keeps you off-balance as it establishes a world where every conversation is a flirtation, and trouble and heartbreak sneak in on little cat feet when no one's looking. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The plot was probably inspired by an actual event, which I will not mention because you may be familiar with it. In any event, Chabrol's insidious style is more absorbing than the plot, as it should be. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A kind of deadpan soap opera - but one that, despite its high melodrama and wicked humor, delivers a real emotional wallop. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Sagnier is yummy. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Chabrol develops the inevitable confrontation between the two men like a car wreck in slow motion, and getting there takes a little more work than it should; the film takes the form of a thriller, but it doesn't have the pace of one. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Chabrol, who is often called the French Hitchcock because of his intricate thrillers, is approaching the big 8-0, yet he continues to do quality work, as shown by A Girl Cut in Two. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
A dry, thoroughly modern reminder that while mores change, human nature doesn't. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
It's intriguing. To be honest, though, there is less to it all than meets the eye. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Would be worthy of the highest rating, except for a slight slackening of energy in the last 20 minutes. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianStan Hall
The symbolic ending may strike some as a letdown but it's well-played by Sagnier, capping another in a string of memorable performances. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Claude Chabrol's capacity to make shopworn material seem almost new is especially evident in this 2007 drama, which he cowrote with his stepdaughter, Cecile Maistre. Read full review
70
VarietyLisa Nesselson
While not a classic, this is a pleasantly disturbing, nominally voyeuristic romp in the territory Chabrol knows best. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
A Girl Cut in Two is a spry piece of work. Chabrol uses this sinister clown show as a means to puncture the media world's hot-air balloons--as well as to highlight the hypocrisies of his favorite target, the haute bourgeoisie. Read full review
70
Washington PostJohn Anderson
For all its charisma, A Girl Cut in Two lacks a certain depth. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
A Girl Cut in Two is Hitchcock sans the whodunit, essentially a long preamble of seduction and spiritual ruin, capped by a crime everyone saw coming (and an eye-dazzling coda that twists the title from metaphor to … something else). Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterBernard Besserglik
Its impact is weakened by a limp ending and a sense that it all adds up to rather less than the sum of its parts. Read full review
60
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Arguably, A Girl Cut in Two is more fun around the edges, as an assemblage of bizarre supporting characters and throwaway comic bits, than it is down the middle, as a classic French morality tale. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
I can't help wishing that Chabrol would, just once, cast off his own good narrative manners--do away with the irritations of a film like A Girl Cut in Two, which is never more than semi-plausible, and arrange his passions, as the elderly Buñuel did in "That Obscure Object of Desire," into shameless, surreal anagrams of wit and lust. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
Velvety storytelling still feels more thawed-out than heated. Read full review
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