57
Metascore
24 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Boxoffice MagazinePam GradyBoxoffice MagazinePam GradyControl's Sam Riley steps into a role made unforgettable by a young Richard Attenborough in the 1947 original and makes it his own, slipping into the character like a second skin.
- 80Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfWhat might have been a long walk off a short pier becomes a valid, vital rethinking of a crime classic.
- 63Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertI know the novel, and as dark as this film is, I believe it hesitates to follow Greene into his dark abyss. It is about helplessness and evil, but isn't merciless enough.
- 58The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsThe A.V. ClubKeith PhippsRowan Joffe (son of Roland Joffe) provides busy, if never particularly distinctive direction, but it's the leads that continually threaten to sink the film.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterRay BennettThe Hollywood ReporterRay BennettRowan Joffe's film of Graham Greene's 1938 novel "Brighton Rock" takes a gothic approach to the story of a young thug obsessed with hell with little of the writer's subtlety and too much reliance on a loud quasi-religious choral score.
- 50VarietyJustin ChangVarietyJustin ChangJoffe's first feature never shakes off the feel of a telepic with above-average production values, and its unsteady lead performances and often garish stylistic touches make a muddle of the source material's psychological acuity.
- 50The New YorkerDavid DenbyThe New YorkerDavid DenbyThe extreme innocence of Rose (Andrea Riseborough), the young girl whom Pinkie seduces in order to keep her quiet, is no longer very convincing, or even interesting.
- 50Village VoiceVillage VoiceThe leads are compelling and the chase and fight scenes - scored to a propulsive bass-drum beat - are kinetic, but as Brighton Rock attempts to zero in on Rose and Pinkie's dangerous relationship, it loses momentum.
- 50Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesChicago ReaderJ.R. JonesJoffe, a British screenwriter (The American, 28 Weeks Later) debuting as director, hits some of these notes in his adaptation of Brighton Rock, but the movie's religious flourishes seem more rhetorical than heartfelt.
- 38Slant MagazineBill WeberSlant MagazineBill WeberBrighton Rock never brings its baby-faced hood antihero, the scarfaced Pinkie Brown (Sam Riley, pouting and hunched in the late-DiCaprio manner), into a semblance of human plausibility.