65
Metascore
23 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 91The Film StageGiovanni Marchini CamiaThe Film StageGiovanni Marchini CamiaDesplechin has frequently acknowledged his debt to psychoanalysis in general and Lacan specifically, but never had he dared plunge as deeply into the mysteries of the psyche as he does here. [Cannes Version]
- 90Screen DailyLisa NesselsonScreen DailyLisa NesselsonDesplechin delivers with flying colours thanks to an excellent cast and a sometimes serious, sometimes funny story that never lets up or becomes predictable. [Cannes Version]
- 80The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijThe Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijThe use of both dialogue and film language is sophisticated; sometimes Ismael’s Ghosts borders on overripe melodrama, while at other times it relies on genre tropes but then gives them an unexpected twist. [Cannes Version]
- 60The TelegraphRobbie CollinThe TelegraphRobbie CollinAmalric transcends mere dishevelment here: in some scenes which flash back to the start of his relationship with Sylvia, the former Bond villain looks like a pile of leaves with a coat thrown on top. [Cannes Version]
- 58The PlaylistJessica KiangThe PlaylistJessica KiangDesplechin lashes storylines and filmmaking gimmickry in to the one ginormous stewpot with gusto, slams the lid down on it and promptly forgets to turn on the heat. [Cannes Version]
- 57Paste MagazineTim GriersonPaste MagazineTim GriersonDid Desplechin get seduced by the problems that plague filmmakers like himself? If so, he’s done a disservice to his own work, which needed a solution to its deficiencies—not an extended reverie that merely highlights them. [Cannes Version]
- 40CineVueJohn BleasdaleCineVueJohn BleasdaleIt isn't that it's hard going: it simply can't decide what it wants to be. [Cannes Version]
- 40The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawThis is an unfinished doodle of a film, a madly self-indulgent jeu d’esprit without substance: a sketch, or jumble of sketches, a ragbag of half-cooked ideas for other movie projects, I suspect, that the director has attempt to salvage and jam together. [Cannes Version]
- 40VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeIn its own weird way, Ismael’s Ghosts has something profound to say about the lingering pain of past relationships and the threat they still pose to the present, but it does so in such a needlessly complicated fashion, we can’t help but be overwhelmed. [Cannes Version]