68
Metascore
12 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyMarvelously well-acted...Quite simply it's one of the most entertaining, most intelligent and most thoroughly satisfying commercial American films in a very long time.
- 100TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineThe period detail is letter-perfect, the cast is uniformly excellent, and Delerue's score is haunting and evocative. TRUE CONFESSIONS is a thoughtful but deeply disturbing film, and its frank portrayal of corruption and murder makes it for adults only.
- 100NewsweekJack KrollNewsweekJack KrollDe Niro's exquisite underacting seems partly designed as a foil for Duvall's special ability to express repressed rage and explosive anxiety. They develop a complex and riveting relationship that's one of the most brilliant brother acts in screen history. [28 Sept 1981, p.87]
- 80Washington PostGary ArnoldWashington PostGary ArnoldBetween the splendid cast and the unsavoriness of the period details, True Confessions generates so much absorbing human interest and persuasive texture that the miscalculated plot seems a minor letdown.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertTrue Confessions contains scenes that are just about as good as scenes can be. Then why does the movie leave us disoriented and disappointed, and why does the ending fail dismally? Perhaps because the attentions of the filmmakers were concentrated so fiercely on individual moments that nobody ever stood back to ask what the story was about.
- 60Chicago ReaderDave KehrChicago ReaderDave KehrThe film looks like an attempt to make a Martin Scorsese movie without Martin Scorsese.
- 50Time OutTime OutThe two Roberts (Duvall as cop, De Niro as priest) turn in potentially great performances, but are given precious little to work with.
- While True Confessions boasts big themes (redemption, reconciliation) and big names, the plot and performances are painfully subtle. It proffers too many details and not enough payoff.
- 40TimeRichard CorlissTimeRichard CorlissSo why does the movie version, with Robert Duvall as Tom and Robert De Niro as Des, proceed at the sluggish pace of a Sodality novena? Perhaps because Dunne's collaborator on the screenplay was his wife, the Empress of Angst, Novelist Joan Didion. Onscreen, characters who should percolate with rage simply simmer. Two exciting, dangerous actors have little to do: Duvall spends too much time pacing and waiting; De Niro's big scene has him hanging up his vestments.