The reviews split almost down the middle, and the split runs along a line of time. The American critics who saw it on release are cold. The New York Times calls the screenplay a mess while conceding Soderbergh’s direction is sound; the Los Angeles Times finds everything of interest on the surface and the plot beneath it trivial; Roger Ebert thinks a gifted director has chosen the wrong subject. Variety agrees the portrait of the artist is shallow and the story too conventional. Later British reviews are warmer. Empire, Time Out and Eye for Film all treat it as an entertaining, exaggerated mystery that borrows from Kafka’s fiction rather than a failed biopic, with Eye for Film singling out Jeremy Irons. Nearly everyone praises the look of the film and the staging. The reservations cluster on the script, a slow opening half hour, and whether the whole thing has anything to say about its subject.
Empire
1 January 2000 · Kim Newman
The critic finds it surprisingly strong despite its reputation as a pretentious failure, praising its exaggerated, entertaining horror-movie take on Kafkaesque themes over a literal biopic.
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