The Minus Man
Artisan Entertainment | Release Date: September 10, 1999 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
9
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Boston GlobeJay Carr
The sly and subtle Minus Man is a wicked little sidewinder of a black comedy. Read full review
90
VarietyGlen Lovell
The kind of muted, anything-but-obvious psychological thriller Hitchcock would have loved. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Eerie, quietly compelling... a fresh and mesmerizing experience...such an unsettling experience you find yourself still taking it all in well after the lights have gone up. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter Travers
A potent thriller that grows in intensity as the audience realizes that the character it likes most is most likely a nut job.
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Excellent acting and a finely tuned screenplay spark this genuinely offbeat melodrama. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
With no climactic showdown and no comforting revelation of motive or reassuring psychoanalytic diagnosis, the nerve-rattling potential of this sly, paranoia-inducing story may sink in only later. Read full review
75
San Francisco ExaminerWesley Morris
Fancher's placid, eerily subdued first directorial feature. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Low-key, understated style. The suspense beats away underneath. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
Disarming-misfit story, which combines elements of a road movie, romance, small-town idyll, and police procedural. Read full review
70
Village VoiceDennis Lim
Less interesting for what it has to say about evil -- namely, that it's banal/unknowable/random/everywhere -- than for the microsurgical procedures it performs on genre conventions and expectations. Read full review
63
Mr. ShowbizMichael Atkinson
It's a drab, familiar story with no oomph (and less humor than you'd think), and it's inconsistent. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunAnn Hornaday
Its mood of ennui and dread will haunt long after its title character's beaming grin has faded. Read full review
60
Film.comPeter Brunette
Fancher seems uninterested in developing real suspense, or incapable of it, at least until the end, when there's plenty of it, but artificially imposed. Read full review
60
Dallas ObserverAndy Klein
Doesn't show us much of anything we haven't seen better already. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
A film without attitude or mystery...an exquisitely executed, and exquisitely banal, treatise on the banality of evil. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
The film ultimately has no contrast and we can't figure out whom to like or dislike. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Takes such pains to avoid narrative and verbal cliches and anything that could remotely be construed as sentimental or romantic that it feels curiously flat. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
There are absolutely no psychological insights into sick minds in The Minus Man, a poky, opaque drama with a good cast and not much going on upstairs. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The banality of faceless evil isn't actually all that compelling on the hoof; the film's more interesting as a curiosity than as a film. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Minimalism be damned; even a postmodern noir needs more than Minus Man gives us. So do the actors. Read full review
50
USA TodayMike Clark
There is no tension here. Actually, The Minus Man is minus a lot - intensity, a point of view, maybe even a point - and that equals an unsatisfying film. Read full review
38
New York PostJonathan Foreman
A slow, self-consciously low-key, very dull film that strains for eeriness with long silences and affectless performances. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
The most lackadaisical thriller I've ever seen, overly infatuated with not only the inexplicability of random evil, but also its mundanity. Read full review
30
SalonJeff Stark
If you're dragged to the theater to be someone's not-dumb date, pack a crossword and a light pen. It'll be the only puzzle worth solving. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
A half-baked disappointment...never flies, never comes close to meeting its own expectations. Read full review
10
TNT RoughCutChristopher Brandon
Really a big fat zero. Hampton Fancher has done the unthinkable -- he's made a boring serial killer movie. Read full review
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