The Loss of Sexual Innocence
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: May 28, 1999 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
8
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Not all of it works, but you play along, because it's rare to find a film this ambitious. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
[Figgis's] most venturesome, most personal - and least accessible film to date. If you open your mind and trust him completely, it's possible to experience the wrenching impact of this ravishingly beautiful and highly distinctive film. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The Loss of Sexual Innocence is not a masterpiece (at times, its obtuseness can seem ponderous and pretentious), it is nevertheless a fascinating experience, with the focus being on the artistic elements inherent in the medium rather than on the narrative. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
It's visually stunning, especially in scenes of the African countryside, and takes more risks than most independent films. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorStaff (Not Credited)
The nonlinear story consists of loosely linked fragments, some more effective than others, threaded together in a broodingly poetic way. Read full review
70
Film ThreatRon Wells
There's some darn poignant stuff going on here.... The problem is that the audience will try to connect everything to the explicit Eden analogy, and not everything will. The director wins points for enticing you to figure it out, though, and I did enjoy it. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
Much of it is risible, yet I loved watching it -not because I thought that the emperor was wearing new clothes but because I thought he looked fine - beautiful, actually - naked. Figgis' camera is probing and alive, so that even when his meanings are laughable, his images remain allusive and mysterious. Read full review
70
VarietyEmanuel Levy
Boasting sublime imagery, but no characters to ground his reverie, the new pic heavily relies on an opaque narrative and elliptical editing. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
It's one of those woozy Jungian art jobs, a series of elliptical, nearly wordless vignettes that are meant to strike a universal symbolist chord. Director Mike Figgis frames the movie with his baroquely contemporary documentary-like version of the Fall. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
It's beautiful to look at, and marvelously edited, but it's hard to know exactly what he's getting at. [28 May 1999]
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