Critic Reviews

• Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times

  A work whose elegant atmospherics ultimately overwhelm the story, even with the terrific Vincent Cassel in the title role.

• Manohla Dargis, New York Times

  What repulsed Coleridge in the novel clearly amuses the French director Dominik Moll in his diverting if somewhat thin adaptation.

• Soren Anderson, Seattle Times

  By the end, "The Monk" has revealed itself to be a too- predictable potboiler, served piping hot.

• Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

  If only director Dominik Moll (who has clearly studied his Luis Buñuel) had not staged this bitter psychological horror story at half speed.

• Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic

  A beautiful-looking film that portends disaster. And disaster arrives, eventually. It just takes its time getting there.

• J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader

  Not bad for a robe-ripper along the lines of The Thorn Birds, but Diary of a Country Priest it ain't.

• Todd Jorgenson, Cinemalogue.com

  This is a fascinating character study about spirituality and religious responsibility that smartly doesn't take its more melodramatic elements very seriously.

• Staci Layne Wilson, Yahoo! Movies

  I confess: I fast-forwarded through most of it.

• Tina Hassannia, Slant Magazine

  Dominik Moll never addresses Matthew Gregory Lewis's original groundbreaking ideas in The Monk, nor does he rework the material for a contemporary audience.

• Marc Mohan, Oregonian

  Not to be mistaken for a serious treatment of religious fervor or clerical corruption, "The Monk" is instead a knowingly over-the-top bit of gothic nuttiness.

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

  It's garish and crazy (and in French), so it's probably not for everyone. But I can't imagine anyone getting bored.

• Mary Clare Waireri, Fan The Fire

  Moll's careful direction ensures a balance of the supernatural and the temporal - Ambrosio could either be seen as a victim of demonic forces within his own monastery or the sole architect of his moral downfall.

• Christopher Tookey, Daily Mail [UK]

  Vincent Cassel does his utmost to make his character intense and compelling, but negligible character development means he fails to hold our interest.

• , Film4

  All talk, no action, The Monk looks good but is weighed down by the Catholic guilt it's trying to critique.

• Andrew Osmond, SFX Magazine

  Studded with lovely painterly images, but ends up feeling cramped and stagey.

• Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph

  The movie broods like nobody's business, setting us up for a temptingly black slab of cassocks-off ecclesiastical depravity.

Read all 16 critic reviews