The White Crow
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: April 26, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
13
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeMar 26, 2019
Equally impressive is the quality of the dance on screen. Read full review
60
The TelegraphMark MonohanMar 20, 2019
A serious-minded, often beautiful, utterly heartfelt character study that nevertheless lacks its astonishing protagonist’s fleet-footedness and only partly captures what made him tick. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 20, 2019
Hare cleverly suggests Nureyev’s mixture of courage, hauteur, emotional damage and cool self-appraisal; the Soviet authorities cannot threaten him through his family because he long ago left them behind. An athletic, confident, undemanding film. Read full review
60
EmpireIan FreerMar 18, 2019
An interesting, challenging mess. The White Crow offers lots that’s impressive — Ivenko as Nureyev, the dance sequences, a knuckle-whitening last 20 minutes — but can’t render it in a dramatically engaging way. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 7, 2019
Aside from the defection scene, the only tension in The White Crow concerns whether Nureyev will achieve the renown he deserves or whether his career will be killed in the crib. That’s not nothing, but it’s small stuff to peg a two-hour movie on, especially one with an unsympathetic protagonist. Read full review
50
Washington PostAlan ZilbermanApr 30, 2019
While the details of Nureyev’s 1961 defection in Paris are thrilling, the film falls into the trap of many historical dramas, rendering the story as surprisingly clunky, especially considering the nimbleness of its subjects. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireApr 26, 2019
It’s structurally awkward, jumping around in time needlessly and sometimes confusingly, rendering Nureyev’s story weirdly inert until the final 20-30 minutes. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisApr 25, 2019
The problem is that while there are dance performances scattered throughout The White Crow, as well as interludes with a sweaty Rudy practicing and striving, the offstage scenes tend to feel like filler, the bits stuck between the barre and the theater. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyApr 24, 2019
Unlike its subject, The White Crow is ultimately forgettable. Read full review
50
Slant MagazinePat BrownApr 24, 2019
Ralph Fiennes’s film too conspicuously avoids an overt political perspective. Read full review
40
TheWrapCandice FrederickApr 23, 2019
The film’s constant waltz between moods is aggravating at best. It becomes unclear whether we are even supposed to root for Rudolf, or if it matters that we do. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMar 21, 2019
Writer David Hare and director Ralph Fiennes have a good feel for the artistic world the story inhabits and professional dancer Oleg Ivenko does a more than creditable job in personifying one of the 20th century’s most celebrated artistic figures, but the narrative bounces all over the place trying to cover too much ground when concentrating on the core drama would have far better served the desired end. Read full review
40
Screen DailyWendy IdeMar 21, 2019
The cluttered structure, littered with brusque little flashbacks, repeatedly interrupts the momentum and tension of the story of Nureyev’s most daring leap. Read full review
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