The Zero Theorem
| Release Date: September 19, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
15
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Total FilmPhilip KempMar 10, 2014
The future as candy-coloured paranoid nightmare: not quite Gilliam’s best, but still the most satisfying movie he’s made for years. Read full review
80
EmpireKim NewmanMar 10, 2014
It’s the tangle of workings-out not the easy answer that are the proof of a theorem, and that magnificent, sparkling, insightful chaos abounds here. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriSep 22, 2014
It starts off as a mess, yes, but eventually finds itself in a very poignant place. Even a lesser Terry Gilliam film is usually more engaging and invigorating than most of the other movies out there. Read full review
70
TimeMary CorlissSep 16, 2013
The Zero Theorem is a spectacle that demands to be cherished — as long as the society Gilliam portrays is a satire, not a prophesy. Read full review
67
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonSep 16, 2013
There’s much to like, from Waltz’s performance to the typically rich production and costume design. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzSep 19, 2014
No matter how feverishly Gilliam directs and no matter how enthusiastically his actors act, the whole thing remains too, er, theoretical. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreSep 16, 2014
Like “Brazil” and “Twelve Monkeys,” it’s about human connections in a technologically warped world rendered lonely and unlivable by the lack of those connections. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Geoff PevereJul 31, 2014
At once cluttered and cavernous, hysterical and static, romantic and cynical, The Zero Theorem works most effectively moment by moment and in the details. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghSep 25, 2014
The Zero Theorem feels like Gilliam's keen intellect chasing its own tail. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottSep 18, 2014
Even as Mr. Gilliam assails the tedium and pointlessness of Qohen’s existence, The Zero Theorem succumbs to those forces, spinning its wheels and repeating its jokes in a manic frenzy that is never as funny or as mind-blowing as it wants to be. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierSep 18, 2014
This all feels like an homage to Gilliam’s “Brazil,” though Zero Theorem also has shadows of “12 Monkeys” and other films in the onetime Monty Python animator’s cinematic carnival. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn BleasdaleSep 16, 2014
All of Gilliam's little details are fun and there are some laugh-out-loud lines, but the actual story itself is never compelling and simply doesn't zip as it should. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneSep 15, 2014
All this leaves The Zero Theorem looking both disorderly and stuck. And yet, to my surprise, on returning for a second viewing I found myself moved by the film — by the very doggedness with which it both hunts for and despairs of meaning. Read full review
60
The DissolveTasha RobinsonAug 25, 2014
It isn’t just that Gilliam’s ragged, wild style is easily recognizable after nearly four decades of feature films, it’s a sense that Zero Theorem recycles its tone, visual design, and plot points directly from his past work. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonDave CalhounSep 16, 2013
It’s anarchic, sometimes amusing, intermittently tedious, with ideas about digital alienation and the corruption of technology that too often feel blunt and tired. Read full review
60
The GuardianXan BrooksSep 16, 2013
The film has a ragged charm, a Tiggerish bounce, and a certain sweet melancholy that bubbles up near the end. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 9, 2014
Orwellian paranoia doesn’t die, it just gets fresh trimmings, and while The Zero Theorem is as messy and overstuffed as Fibber McGilliam’s closet, its sorrow and anger and demented humor strike just enough fresh sparks to keep this career alive. Read full review
50
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekSep 16, 2014
Too bad the story tucked around all that production design is such a futuristic drag. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloSep 17, 2014
If only this imaginative environment were populated with a single compelling character or stimulating idea, rather than serving as busy distraction from the narrative tedium. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinSep 22, 2014
This "Theorem" is all sizzle, zero steak. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottSep 19, 2014
As a collective thing, though, those moments add up to a messy, all-over-the-map movie that toys with big, existential thoughts, but it doesn't have a coherent enough story with which to drive them home. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungSep 16, 2013
It doesn’t really add up to much, beyond a timely reminder that it would be better for everyone to stop uploading and downloading and just unplug and be human. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 16, 2013
Raucous but fatally confused, openly pilfering its central themes from Gilliam’s own 1985 masterpiece Brazil, but with no idea how to develop them. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithSep 18, 2014
Another project whose narrative gets swallowed by its design. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChuck BowenSep 13, 2014
Terry Gilliam has imposed a mix tape of his greatest hits, whose greatness was debatable to begin with, on a whiff of a story that might've flourished under the maxim "less is more." Read full review
37
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 18, 2014
The Zero Theorem doesn’t fully earn the elaborately conceived scaffolding on which its relatively tame ideas are hoisted. Read full review
30
VarietyLeslie FelperinSep 16, 2013
A sci-fi confection that, at best, momentarily recalls the dystopian whimsy of the director’s best-loved effort, “Brazil,” but ends up dissolving into a muddle of unfunny jokes and half-baked ideas, all served up with that painful, herky-jerky Gilliam rhythm. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMichael OrdonaSep 18, 2014
Zero is more of an intellectual exercise in which you’re never given all the variables to solve the problem — and then you find your calculator was on acid the whole time anyway. Read full review
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