The Rover
A24 | Release Date: June 13, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
17
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJun 12, 2014
There is nothing noble about Eric's mission or about the considerable violence he resorts to to get the job done, but Pearce's willingness to give him an integrity of purpose mixes well with Michôd's intense, controlled direction and his ability to blend unexpected, empathetic character moments with all the killing. Read full review
90
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonJun 10, 2014
The Rover might not be about anything at all, but the dust it stirs up sticks to you after you leave the theater. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJun 19, 2014
The Rover is a sterling example of the new Australian noir. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 23, 2014
Bleak, brutal and unrelentingly nihilist, and with only sporadic flashes of the blackest, most mordant humor to lighten the load, it feels parched, like the story has simply boiled away in the desert heat and all that’s left are its desiccated bones. In a good way. Read full review
80
TheWrapDiane GarrettJun 16, 2014
The Rover is less an allegory than a suggestion how bad things could become. It's well made, and it's disturbing, if not overly passion inducing. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJun 12, 2014
The Rover, is anything but lively, though it's long on menace, often violent and consistently fascinating. Read full review
80
The DissolveKeith PhippsJun 12, 2014
While Michôd never satisfactorily develops the central relationship, The Rover is still a showcase for two strong performances.
80
VarietyScott FoundasMay 23, 2014
Michod’s sophomore feature isn’t exactly something we’ve never seen before, but it has a desolate beauty all its own, and a career-redefining performance by Robert Pattinson that reveals untold depths of sensitivity and feeling in the erstwhile “Twilight” star. Read full review
80
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 23, 2014
For most post-apocalyptic films, the nightmare is really a disguised fantasy. In Michôd's excellent The Rover, the nightmare is real. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJun 19, 2014
Guy Pearce isn’t as physically formidable as Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson in Leone’s classics, but he’s just as determined and dangerous. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoJun 13, 2014
A bleak, brutal film; at times, its monotony can be draining. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneJun 13, 2014
Robert Pattinson's stare is almost thousand-yard enough to make the film's sense of tragedy feel downright Greek. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 12, 2014
All you really need to know is that The Rover is a modern Western that explodes the terms good and evil; that its desolation is brilliantly rendered by Michôd and cinematographer Natasha Braier; that Pearce and Pattinson are a blazing pair of opposites. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jun 11, 2014
At heart, The Rover is something of a buddy road movie, albeit one almost completely devoid of humor. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreJun 11, 2014
As violent and primal as “Animal Kingdom,” but not as brisk. The film grinds to a halt in between confrontations. And those shoot-outs are simple, direct and bloody, not “staged” in the Hollywood sense. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 19, 2014
His first film, "Animal Kingdom," was a terrific examination of a low-grade crime family in Melbourne. The Rover is more ambitious but not as good. Michod's patience with scenes, while laudable, is at times too much. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJun 13, 2014
It’s overbaked art-pulp. You’re always thinking, What fresh horror is around the next bend? Read full review
70
SlateDan KoisJun 12, 2014
It’s a welcome sight, seeing him carry a movie again. He’s austere and fascinating in The Rover, and his seriousness of purpose undercuts any possible campiness in the film’s world-gone-wrong setting: Each scene may be more dire than the last, but we care about Pearce, so we care about the movie. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMay 23, 2014
Always commanding attention at the film’s center is Pearce, who, under a taciturn demeanor, gives Eric all the cold-hearted remorselessness of a classic Western or film noir anti-hero who refuses to die before exacting vengeance for an unpardonable crime. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJun 18, 2014
Despite not breaking any new cinematic ground. The Rover plays like a taut spellbinder. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 19, 2014
What makes The Rover more watchable than the average self-conscious genre exercise is Pearce, who exudes such weary authority and palpable vulnerability that he’s sympathetic even in the film’s most brutalizing moments. Read full review
60
EmpireAdam SmithAug 11, 2014
This would have been a striking calling card, and it’s still an impressively solid piece of genre filmmaking with great cinematography and score. But there’s not much here of the ambition of Animal Kingdom, leaving Michôd in ‘difficult third movie’ territory. Let’s hope he gets a move on this time. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 12, 2014
There is both too much story and not enough. The contours of this desolate future are lightly sketched rather than fully explained, which is always a good choice. But that minimalism serves as an excuse for an irritating lack of narrative clarity, so that much of what happens seems arbitrary rather than haunting. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJun 12, 2014
The Rover is almost worth it for the coiled central performance of Guy Pearce, who outfuries Mel Gibson with his pinpoint shotgun skills and monomaniacal quest. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 23, 2014
Michôd creates a good deal of ambient menace in The Rover; Pearce has a simmering presence. But I felt there was a bit of muddle, and the clean lines of conflict and tension had been blurred: the dystopian future setting doesn't add much and hasn't been very rigorously imagined. Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJun 19, 2014
The Rover fascinates and frustrates in equal measure, with Michod withholding details of plot and character so thoroughly that a nihilistic fog sets in. Read full review
58
HitfixDrew McWeenyMay 23, 2014
While there are some very strong performances in the film, the movie is inert, dramatically speaking, and covers such familiar ground that I can't really recommend it. Read full review
58
IndieWireEric KohnMay 23, 2014
Like its tattered setting, The Rover is scattered with intriguing ideas never successfully fleshed out. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesMary HoulihanJun 19, 2014
The Rover does have a central nervous system that crackles and pops with suspense, but in the end it’s not enough to jump-start the lack of narrative. Too much story is missing, and that is simply distracting. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 19, 2014
There’s a thin line between the iconic and the generic, and The Rover, a grim post-apocalyptic drama from down under, wanders back and forth across it in an adrenaline daze. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJun 19, 2014
Best of all is the work of Gillian Jones, who shows up in one scene as "Grandma." Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJun 19, 2014
After an exciting high-speed car chase reminiscent of the Mad Max pictures, The Rover settles into a two-character drama between Eric and Rey, but Pearce is so one-note that their relationship is never engaging. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedJun 12, 2014
A bleak and pointless exercise in pretentious existentialism. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithJun 11, 2014
Lawless outback, shotgun-toting banditos and even roadside crucifixions somehow add up to an experience that’s about as thrilling as your average trip to the post office. Read full review
46
Film.comJordan HoffmanMay 21, 2014
A dark, dreary and dull “Mad Max in Neutral” from director David Michôd (“Animal Kingdom”) that tries to pass off its blunt narrative and repetitiveness as some sort of style. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJun 12, 2014
A major disappointment. Bleak, brutal, and ultimately pointless. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsStaff (Not credited)Jun 12, 2014
On the bright side, Robert Pattinson’s pretty good in The Rover. Unfortunately, the movie isn’t. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 23, 2014
Michôd’s film consciously plays like an outback western, peppered with jagged and unpredictable outbursts of hard brutality. But it could do with losing control a little more often – and with establishing the dangers of its dog-eat-dog world more precisely. Read full review
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