46
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertHere is a movie so absorbing, so atmospheric, so suspenseful and so dumb, that it proves my point: The subject matter doesn't matter in a movie nearly as much as mood, tone and style.
- 75ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliIt is involving and entertaining, and features an intriguing, independent heroine.
- 70The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinThis story has now been gracefully adapted by Bille August into a sleek, good-looking film that captures the book's peculiar fascination.
- 63The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenRegresses into a lame action-thriller.
- 50Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumBy the end Smilla has become a formulaic action hero--equally at home in an evening dress and blue jeans--not a marginalized victim seeking to uncover the source of her wound, and the film collapses around her like glaciers of melting ice.
- 50San Francisco ChronicleRuthe SteinSan Francisco ChronicleRuthe SteinVanessa Redgrave makes a regal if too-brief appearance.
- 50San Francisco ExaminerBarbara ShulgasserSan Francisco ExaminerBarbara ShulgasserThis is the kind of story that might have been interesting had it not been populated with dreary characters played by actors who were clearly coached to be as dull as possible.
- 40SalonSalonIt doesn't help that Julia Ormond -- perhaps the most un-Smilla-like actress walking the planet -- is cast in the starring role. She gives a competent performance, but she looks like Nancy Drew's pert-nosed cousin who somehow got trapped while sleuthing inside a snow globe, not the prickly, androgynous warrior Smilla is meant to be.
- The matter-of-fact way in which the story is presented serves as a constant reminder of how implausible the whole thing is. Add to this the single expression Ormond and Byrne are allowed throughout the film, and you're left with one more weak, confusing, ignorable movie that embarrasses its source.
- 30Washington PostDesson ThomsonWashington PostDesson ThomsonThe suspense is laughably absent.