Page Eight

:

Season 1
Metascore
72

Generally favorable reviews - based on 6 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6

Critic Reviews

  1. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Nancy DeWolf Smith
    Nov 4, 2011
    90
    [Bill Nighy] is the riveting, breath-stealing, can't-take-your-eyes-off-him center of drama where every actor and every moment is like that, too.
  2. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ken Tucker
    Nov 4, 2011
    83
    If you can get past the notion of Nighy being irresistible to every woman he encounters (I almost did), you'll get caught up in the carefully modulated intrigue.
  3. TV Guide Magazine
    Reviewed by: Matt Roush
    Nov 4, 2011
    80
    A quietly absorbing elegy for old-school spooks, Page Eight bristles with jazzy intelligence.
  5. The Huffington Post
    Reviewed by: Maureen Ryan
    Nov 4, 2011
    70
    This small gem of a film manages to be a finely drawn character piece and a searching exploration of what powerful people will (and won't) do to keep their countries safe, and it provides some great actors with meaty roles along the way.
  6. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Alessandra Stanley
    Nov 4, 2011
    60
    It's the right cast in the right setting but with a wrongfully righteous script.
  7. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Matthew Gilbert
    Nov 4, 2011
    50
    The movie is so carefully stylized, any and all emotional import has been sucked out of it.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 13 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 13
  3. Negative: 0 out of 13
  1. amirmanraj
    Jul 26, 2012
    10
    I felt compelled to write a review after reading Alessandra Stanley's mixed review for the New York Times. I can see why some Americans wouldI felt compelled to write a review after reading Alessandra Stanley's mixed review for the New York Times. I can see why some Americans would be offended by this film, but David Hare's script is flawless. Judy Davis and Bill Nighy are amazing.… Full Review »
  2. ClariseSamuels
    Mar 12, 2015
    6
    I was looking forward to seeing this movie mostly because Bill Nighy has charmed me since I saw him in The Boat that Rocked. The movie was aI was looking forward to seeing this movie mostly because Bill Nighy has charmed me since I saw him in The Boat that Rocked. The movie was a perfect selection for Masterpiece Contemporary, even though a good part of it was devoted to talking heads, although the heads that talked were some of the best in British film and theater. Highly stylized, it was occasionally a thicket of intellectual conversations about art, high government corruption, father-daughter relationships, and more high government corruption.

    Fortunately, Bill Nighy is so elegant and understated in the role of Johnny Worricker, he can fascinate you even if he's reciting a list, and Ralph Fiennes is also a master of subtlety, absolutely necessary for a film that is trying to be so subtle that if you blink, you'll miss major exchanges of suppressed emotional fury. Rachel Weisz was miscast as the love interest (she doesn’t really look Palestinian), but although slow-moving, Page Eight is of historical interest because the principal actors are at the height of their rather brilliant careers.

    Also, in light of the subsequent two programs that followed, Page Eight can now be seen as an interesting preamble in a trilogy, followed in 2014 by the far more fascinating Part 2 (Turks & Caicos) and Part 3 (Salting the Battlefield), which puts Johnny Worricker front and center as the world’s most complex, hunted, haunted—and mature—spy.

    (This review has been reposted.)    … Full Review »
See all user reviews »