Critic Reviews

• Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

  Has all the dramatic punch of a community theater production.

• Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

  Too lifeless for Lifetime and too inept to do justice to its source material...

• Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

  The plot, in short, is underwhelming. It merely follows the reporters as the screenplay serves them the solution to their case on a silver platter.

• John Anderson, Variety

  Although helmer Curt Hahn champions the causes of racial justice and crusading journalism, he can't seem to find a tone that's consistent or that befits the gravity of his subject matter.

• Ernest Hardy, Village Voice

  The fact that real-life deadly racial animus in America is often cartoonish in its manifestation doesn't excuse Deadline's cliché-ridden characterizations of bigotry.

• Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

  ...it's not evil and it's enjoyable in the same way the really terrible movies featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 were enjoyable (or at least it was for me and my jaded sensibilities)... a well-intentioned mess.

• David Noh, Film Journal International

  A case involving the murder of a black youth gets solved here, but absolutely nothing could help this numbingly awful, undoubtedly well-intentioned but who-cares-it's-so-bad farrago.

• Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine

  By the end of it, you'll be crying uncle--or wish you were watching The Help instead. At least that was a more artful lie.

• John Beifuss, Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

  The acting is the strong suit of this 'cold case civil rights murder' drama, with songwriter J.D. Souther -- who resembles a more professorial Clint Eastwood -- making a particularly distinct impression.

Read all 9 critic reviews