The Grey Zone
Lions Gate Films | Release Date: October 18, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
14
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Pitiless, bleak and despairing -- The Grey Zone refers to a world where everyone is covered with the gray ash of the dead, and it has been like that for so long they do not even notice anymore. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
No dramatic feature has ever come quite this close to the matter-of-fact ugliness of the Nazi crimes. Read full review
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Explores cloudy, discomforting realities of the Holocaust not usually addressed in such films. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Gives life and meaning to an event that is little more than a footnote in history books (if that). Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Extremely difficult but worthy film. Read full review
75
USA TodayMike Clark
Grimly claustrophobic movies can make viewers put up a shield, yet Tim Blake Nelson (who directed O) invests this unusual Holocaust drama with dramatic intensity that in no way cheapens its subject matter. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Should be seen: It's a worthy ordeal, with flaws that, ironically, make grist for later arguments. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyJohn Patterson
It's grim stuff indeed, but somehow the horror never quite overwhelms Nelson's sure-footed approach to raising all manner of frankly unanswerable questions -- in particular, what would or could one have done in such circumstances? Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
The atmosphere makes a deeper impression than the drama, which might represent a failing on Nelson's part, but could it be avoided? His film portrays the pinholes of light in a place of otherwise unrelenting darkness. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
When the larger question cannot be answered, the lesser one -- "What would you have done?" -- seems beside the point. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
I would like to be able to report that Nelson's directorial vision is grim and uncompromising. Grim it most surely is. But his movie about morally compromised figures leaves viewers feeling compromised, unable to find their way out of the fog and the ashes. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
There are better holocaust dramas than Grey Zone -- "Schindler's List" for one, and due later this year, Roman Polanski's magnificent "The Pianist." But few will disturb you like The Grey Zone -- mostly because it won't try for tears. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
It's an intelligent, chilling movie, but one that can't quite shake those stage origins. Read full review
60
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Jagged, unrelenting, claustrophobically intimate. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
With all its flaws, though, The Grey Zone deserves to be respected, and to be seen.
60
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Led me to second thoughts about whether the feel-good tactics of "Schindler's List" were any worse than the feel-bad tactics on display here. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
The dialogue is clipped and theatrical, and, aside from Harvey Keitel's German officer, accents are abandoned, which may distract viewers. For me it worked fine.
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
The movie's storyline is not always perfectly clear, seemingly falling into the same murky “grey zone” as everything else. Read full review
50
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Nelson certainly passes muster for sincerity but, unfortunately, his movie doesn't have the same clear-cut quality. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Staccato, Mamet-style dialogue exchanges, breathless pacing and remarkably healthy, well-fed-looking actors create a cumulative sense of artificiality that seriously undercuts the devastating effect clearly being sought. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
It plunges so deep, in fact, that the film winds up bordering on the unwatchable. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
Nelson's work is relentless, grueling and courageous. He makes a large blunder in having American actors (David Arquette, Steve Buscemi) play Hungarian Jews with American accents, while Harvey Keitel plays a Nazi officer with a German accent. Read full review
50
New York PostMegan Lehmann
No light leavens the ashen wash of writer-director Tim Blake Nelson's relentlessly downbeat Holocaust drama The Grey Zone. None. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverJean Oppenheimer
Nelson has directed his actors--including David Arquette, Steve Buscemi and Daniel Benzali (no, this isn't a joke)--to speak in David Mamet-like cadence, all short, choppy sentences and staccato rhythms. It's a terrible mistake. Read full review
40
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Certainly an honorable film. But honorable is not always watchable. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
It isn't just that there's something unsettling about a film that aestheticizes a crematorium; it's that there's something trivializing about the very effort. Read full review
40
Village VoiceLeslie Camhi
"No poetry after Auschwitz," Theodor Adorno proclaimed. One sometimes wishes he'd added, "And no big-name cinema either." Read full review
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