The Humbling
Millennium Entertainment | Release Date: January 23, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
7
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJan 16, 2015
Pacino still gets a blast out of acting. His performance in this film about a blocked performer is gloriously unblocked – a valentine to vanity. Read full review
80
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekJan 20, 2015
Levinson and Pacino's willingness to explore the creakier end of life isn't a drawback; it's what gives The Humbling its bittersweet vitality. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinDec 4, 2014
If you can adjust to the film's uneven rhythms and often illusory vibe, there's a treasure trove of off-kilter humor, affecting pathos and first-class acting to be savored. Read full review
80
CineVueJohn BleasdaleSep 5, 2014
The result is a beautifully entertaining film. It is witty and the scenes between Gerwig and Pacino fizz alternately with flirtation, humour and occasionally rage. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJan 29, 2015
The Humbling is a dark dazzler shot through with mirth and delicious malice. But be warned. It is not Roth's novel. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerJan 22, 2015
An unusually charming dark comedy about an actor teetering on the edges of reality, fantasy and career. The subject of dementia is explored and mined, not made fun of. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickJan 21, 2015
Pacino demonstrates considerable comic chops in The Humbling — which has some interesting similarities to “Birdman.’’ It loses some momentum in its third act, but provides plenty of juicy material for a terrific cast. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen HoldenJan 22, 2015
The movie is too shrewd to qualify as a jeremiad, but underneath the comedy are boiling undercurrents of anger and despair. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJan 22, 2015
Pacino in low doses can be fulsome, and this is 10,000 cc’s of super-concentrated Al and his patented air of electrified stuporousness — which means it’s always on the border between thrilling and insufferable. Read full review
70
The DissolveMike D'AngeloJan 20, 2015
For every element that doesn’t work...there’s a moment that crackles with electricity and conviction. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungSep 5, 2014
Once Pacino is surrounded by other characters, the comedy comes thick and fast and the material begins to come together in an absurd sort of way. Read full review
70
VarietyScott FoundasSep 5, 2014
Fronted by a vibrant, deeply committed Al Pacino performance and very fine support from Greta Gerwig, this uneven but captivating film deserves to find its own audience, though doing so will surely prove to be an uphill climb. Read full review
67
IndieWireKaleem AftabSep 5, 2014
The entertainment value of The Humbling comes largely from Pacino's performance. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireJan 23, 2015
Pacino dials down the manic, wide-eyed “Hoo-ah!” that has defined his screen presence over the past couple decades, and often rendered the Method master a parody of himself. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneJan 21, 2015
Philip Roth's original ending is cranked up to 11, flattening the more interesting contours of Al Pacino's performance into a martyr's desperate plea for an audience's love. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 20, 2015
The Humbling should have been more brisk, should have been cut, and should have had more of the Pacino who finishes this thing off with a flourish. The soul searching and sense of a life misspent are interesting. But there’s an awful lot of hooey before we get to the “Hoo hah.” Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJan 22, 2015
The Humbling is a jumbled collection of scenes in which fantasy and reality intertwine in a manner I found more maddening than intriguing. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 22, 2015
A so-so movie you just might want to see more than once. It belongs in a strange category: a film that can’t quite be called a success, that has too many dead spots, that doesn’t quite hang together or satisfy, and that yet is more interesting and occupies more space in the mind than other movies that are ostensibly and even unquestionably better. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jan 21, 2015
Even, however, if its thunder hadn’t been immediately stolen by "Birdman," which premiered three days before it at last August’s Venice International Film Festival, The Humbling would still look like a folly. Bad timing is the least of its problems. Read full review
42
The PlaylistJessica KiangSep 5, 2014
A missed opportunity that squanders the talents of a pretty stacked cast and jeopardizes the audience’s patience and care for its spoiled characters for too long. Read full review
40
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJan 26, 2015
The whole thing makes Dustin Hoffman’s performance in Levinson’s “Rain Man” seem like a triumph of underplaying. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeJan 20, 2015
“Old age isn’t a battle; old age is a massacre,” Roth wrote in Everyman, but other than a few jokes about Axler’s limp erection and thrown-out back, we don’t see much of that. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 5, 2014
The Humbling, which was directed by Barry Levinson (Good Morning, Vietnam, Rain Man) and based on a novel by Philip Roth, is such inept, shuffling nonsense that an apter title might have been The Bumbling. Read full review
25
HitfixCatherine BraySep 5, 2014
Pacino himself isn't exactly bad, but he's far from good, and it's difficult to see past the terrible role. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanJan 21, 2015
With all the talent on tap — including screenwriter Buck Henry, who worked with Michal Zebede to adapt Philip Roth’s 2009 novel — you’d think we’d get something better than this outdated indulgence. Read full review
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