The Myth of Fingerprints
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: September 17, 1997 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
A low-key holiday drama that's refreshing not only because it lacks the big discovery melodrama of most similar movies but because it's entirely believable. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
This engrossing blend of humor and heartbreak only hints at the causes, from betrayal to child abuse, of this family's dysfunction. Hang on. Attention is richly rewarded. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The characters are sharply etched but the plot is made deliberately ambiguous, suggesting that family life is so emotionally intricate that no single story can contain or explain it. Read full review
70
NewsweekB.J. Sigesmund
Stands as a wonderful ensemble piece not unlike Woody Allen's dramas "Interiors" and "September." Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
It's a decorous film, conventionally well-made, but don't be fooled. Its emotional impact is considerable. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
It's probably not the last word in WASP angst, but it's eloquent, witty, graceful and as sharp as can be. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Proficiently written and directed by newcomer Bart Freundlich, handsome pic brandishes traditional qualities in the areas of acting, character revelation and middlebrow seriousness, but operates within a familiar and narrow emotional range that provides little surprise or excitement. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
Has spasms of silliness that thaw things out delightfully. Davis plays Vartan's girlfriend as an irrepressible, sexed-up brat, and gives every line a little hop, skip, and jump. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Less can sometimes be perceived as more, but in the case of The Myth of Fingerprints less is simply less. Read full review
63
San Francisco ExaminerBarbara Shulgasser
Freundlich's problem is that he has made an essentially interesting movie that never seems brave enough to say what it really intends. Read full review
60
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Has some good performances (Ms. Moore's ongoing snit is a terrifically sustained bit of glowering), but it only barely begins to knit its self-pitying characters into a credible family unit. They are oddballs with attitude. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Stack
When all is fretted and done, there's little dramatic payoff in this moody first feature by Bart Freundlich. But cinematographer Stephen Kazmierski's images are appealing, and the mood is on target -- Thanksgiving as hell. Read full review
50
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The film has a kind of echo-filled emptiness to it that some will take as profundity and others as mere emptiness. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyDenise Lanctot
The first-rate cast is wasted serving up this melodramatic turkey. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyPaul Malcolm
An overly mannered film drowning in the symptoms of dysfunction but unable to tap the root causes of this WASPish clan's pain except in the most oblique and cursory ways. This might be Freundlich's point, considering this family deals with its problems through avoidance. Read full review
40
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
As Freundlich surely knew, he must have counted, as do we, on the revelation of character to enrich the piece. It doesn't happen. None of the people is particularly interesting, not even the obligatory neurotic, well enough played by Julianne Moore. [6 October 1997, p. 28]
40
SalonCharles Taylor
The Myth of Fingerprints is only 90 minutes long, but watching all this tasteful torment, you can't help thinking that if you were watching a Jewish family or an Italian one, the air would be cleared -- and you'd be out of the theater -- a hell of a lot quicker. Read full review
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