The Magic Flute (2006)

Critic Reviews

• Robert Everett-Green, Globe and Mail

  The results are often fascinating (I love the duet of the Armed Men, sung by a chorus of faces animated out of a wall of sandbags), sometimes ludicrous and never boring.

• John Terauds, Toronto Star

  In the end, love triumphs. In this movie, the music triumphs, proving again that a true masterpiece can survive all kinds of meddling.

• Derek Elley, Variety

  Opera buffs shouldn't throw away their DVDs of Ingmar Bergman's 1975 TV movie.

• Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

  Even though there were moments in The Magic Flute when I wondered if Branagh hadn't truly gone off his rocker, I found its audacity exhilarating.

• John Coulbourn, Jam! Movies

  It dwells quite happily somewhere in the no-man's-land between "Perfect" and "Perfectly Enjoyable."

• Jeremy Heilman, MovieMartyr.com

  Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute comes on strong ... maybe too strong...

• Charlotte O'Sullivan, This is London

  A week is a long time in cinema. Last Friday saw Branagh being all but written off thanks to the ludicrous Sleuth. This week, he's hitting the high notes.

• Anthony Quinn, Independent

  His flamboyant rendering of the Mozart opera isn't as smug and stagey as Sleuth, but it is insufferable - and 40 minutes longer.

• Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph

  With James Conlon conducting, this Flute is perfectly in tune - so it's a shame Branagh keeps dropping it in the mud.

• Nigel Andrews, Financial Times

  The film is fresh, spectacular and unafraid to be called philistine.

• Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]

  A genial and good-natured production with much spectacle and entertainment to offer, and, like all of Branagh's classical revivals on celluloid, it manages to be high-minded and yet accessible.

• Wendy Ide, Times [UK]

  Despite the talent involved - Branagh is joined by Stephen Fry, who has written a new libretto - and the ambitious staging, this flute blows all right, but it's short on the magic.

• Fran Hortop, Film4

  Flashes of inspiration but not enough, one suspects, to cause a stampeding horde of cinemagoers to beat down the doors of the Royal Opera House.

• Tim Evans, Sky Movies

  It's an impressive undertaking by Branagh but a rather pointless one.

• Laura Bushell, BBC

  A huge budget allows for spectacular CGI sequences and Branagh concocts some startlingly inspired ways to accompany Mozart's music in visuals.

• Nev Pierce, Total Film

  Branagh's imagery is imaginative and the music lifts you. A neat trick.

• Martin Hoyle, Time Out

  Apart from a fascination with the hate-spitting mouth and throat of Lyubov Petrova's vocally pyrotechnic Queen of the Night, the visual gimmicks are individually tolerable. But they don't add up to anything particular.

• Kat Brown, Empire Magazine

  Although Branagh has done a good job of toning down the opera's more ridiculous elements, what remains will test even the most willing opera virgin.

• Boyd van Hoeij, european-films.net

  Miles away from the cute theatrical film adaptation of Ingmar Bergman, though bigger in this case is not necessarily better.

Read all 19 critic reviews