Critic Reviews

• Mark Jenkins, Washington Post

  With its widescreen compositions and flame-illuminated interiors, "Sacrifice" is visually entrancing. Yet the movie is not just an exercise in style.

• Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times

  It is handsomely done and well-acted, but it lacks real energy or purpose.

• Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

  Perhaps it's all that armor, or that even the estimable Mr. Wang seems exhausted by the film's dolorous themes, but it's tough to care about characters who spend most of their lives obsessing over the violent deaths of others.

• Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader

  Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine) cowrote and directed, and his talent for psychological drama isn't really suited to this sort of broad, mythic storytelling.

• David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle

  It charges out of the gate in Indiana Jones style, employing so many plot twists that you may need a scorecard. Then after an hour or so, it settles into an intimate, character-driven drama, before its low-key yet thought-provoking finale.

• Mark Feeney, Boston Globe

  Now who exactly are those two guys slurping noodles? Are they both doctors? Why do they matter?

• Louis Proyect, rec.arts.movies.reviews

  Both a thrilling swordplay epic as well as an intimate chamber drama about clashing filial loyalties.

• Todd Jorgenson, Cinemalogue.com

  The visuals from Chen and his crew are striking.

• Kirk Honeycutt, honeycuttshollywood.com

  The master's touch is evident throughout a carefully calibrated drama that builds to a shocking tragedy.

• Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press

  Chinese film fans will be intrigued by a shift to more human, less spectacle-based storytelling.

• Sam Adams, AV Club

  Chen can't seem to decide whether he's making a fable or something more down-to-earth, but Sacrifice works either way, if not both at once.

• Jake Mulligan, Boston Phoenix

  There are some wonderful wuxia-style fight scenes spread throughout, and a last duel finally shifts all the plodding backstory into a visual spectacle.

• Daniel Eagan, Film Journal International

  A widowed father grooms his son to be a killer in a sweeping drama set in fifth-century B.C. China.

• Bill Weber, Slant Magazine

  A historical melodrama that retains an ancient, elemental pull even as it insufficiently charts motivation and the self-denying values of antiquity.

• Robin Clifford, Reeling Reviews

  Techs are terrific, from costume to cinematography, giving the film a lovely look.

• Laura Clifford, Reeling Reviews

  Kaige Chen reaches back in time to tell another story of a child's relation to his father as well as his place in history. Featuring a grounding performance from You as the adoptive parent, "Sacrifice" is at once both epic and intimate.

Read all 16 critic reviews