58
Metascore
17 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliA low-key holiday drama that's refreshing not only because it lacks the big discovery melodrama of most similar movies but because it's entirely believable.
- 75Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversThis engrossing blend of humor and heartbreak only hints at the causes, from betrayal to child abuse, of this family's dysfunction. Hang on. Attention is richly rewarded.
- 70NewsweekNewsweekStands as a wonderful ensemble piece not unlike Woody Allen's dramas "Interiors" and "September."
- 67Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenLess can sometimes be perceived as more, but in the case of The Myth of Fingerprints less is simply less.
- 63San Francisco ExaminerBarbara ShulgasserSan Francisco ExaminerBarbara ShulgasserFreundlich's problem is that he has made an essentially interesting movie that never seems brave enough to say what it really intends.
- 60The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenHas some good performances (Ms. Moore's ongoing snit is a terrifically sustained bit of glowering), but it only barely begins to knit its self-pitying characters into a credible family unit. They are oddballs with attitude.
- 50San Francisco ChroniclePeter StackSan Francisco ChroniclePeter StackWhen all is fretted and done, there's little dramatic payoff in this moody first feature by Bart Freundlich. But cinematographer Stephen Kazmierski's images are appealing, and the mood is on target -- Thanksgiving as hell.
- 50Washington PostStephen HunterWashington PostStephen HunterThe film has a kind of echo-filled emptiness to it that some will take as profundity and others as mere emptiness.
- 40The New RepublicStanley KauffmannThe New RepublicStanley KauffmannAs Freundlich surely knew, he must have counted, as do we, on the revelation of character to enrich the piece. It doesn't happen. None of the people is particularly interesting, not even the obligatory neurotic, well enough played by Julianne Moore. [6 October 1997, p. 28]
- 40SalonCharles TaylorSalonCharles TaylorThe Myth of Fingerprints is only 90 minutes long, but watching all this tasteful torment, you can't help thinking that if you were watching a Jewish family or an Italian one, the air would be cleared -- and you'd be out of the theater -- a hell of a lot quicker.