47
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 63Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreFor a genre picture, this one is better than average, letting us see what two fine actors saw in the script and not leaving them or us disappointed in the result.
- 60The New York TimesBen KenigsbergThe New York TimesBen KenigsbergThe Operative, directed by Yuval Adler, doesn’t offer much distinctive, but it does deliver a few suspenseful sequences, some interesting nuts-and-bolts details of espionage work and a good lead performance en route to an unsatisfying ending.
- 58The Film StageEd FranklThe Film StageEd FranklDirector Adler has made a very talky film, full of interior scenes and far flung from the hard-edged spy thrillers of Bond or Bourne.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyWriter-director Yuval Adler connects the dots of the convoluted plot with reasonable clarity, but The Operative only intermittently builds suspense.
- 50Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayLos Angeles TimesNoel MurrayThe movie hits all the right plot points but never connects them to a story with any kind of momentum or tension.
- 50RogerEbert.comChristy LemireRogerEbert.comChristy LemireDiane Kruger is as inscrutable to us as she is to her fellow Mossad agents and the asset she seduces in The Operative, a solidly crafted if forgettable espionage thriller.
- 50Film ThreatAlex SavelievFilm ThreatAlex SavelievIts dismal grey/brown color palette doesn’t help the film’s sluggish pacing, making The Operative one of the most head-scratching, aggravating experiences of the year so far.
- 20The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawAudiences may come to this film expecting the conventional pleasures of a spy thriller – excitement, tension, suspense – along with the additional values associated with the very best of the genre: character nuance, emotional complexity, plausible human dilemma. The Operative utterly defeats all of these hopes, chiefly in being at all times extremely boring.