Critic Reviews

• Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

  The film is sustained effortlessly by the charismatic Watling and Tosar, who are among Spain's most popular movie stars.

• V.A. Musetto, New York Post

  The comedy is too broad, lacking the subtlety that the film's high-brow intentions require.

• Stephen Holden, New York Times

  The Freudian farce Unconscious is paced so breathlessly that it keeps you panting to keep up with each new plot twist.

• Gene Seymour, Newsday

  Are the Spanish the only ones these days able to make movie comedies that are smart, sexy, wacky and graceful all at once?

• Jennifer Drapkin, Village Voice

  The movie's message is clear: Freud's greatest contribution to society was not the idea that all little boys long to sleep with their mothers -- rather, it's the concept of the unconscious, a hidden place where our secret desires yearn to be free.

• Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle

  [Director Joaquin] Oristrell's comedic sense only seems to succeed in spurts, and he often burdens the proceedings with a theatrical and contrived air that undermines the humor.

• Kam Williams, EURWeb

  Tackling an array of rather risque subjects in a disarmingly sweet fashion, ranging from cross-dressing to sado-masochism to incest, Unconscious explores everything you always wanted to know about sex, and more.

• Josh Bell, Las Vegas Weekly

  Oristrell stages funny, madcap scenes around bondage, cross-dressing and incest.

• John Patterson, L.A. Weekly

  Laboring in the wide shadow of Almodóvar and lacking much in the way of visual distinction, Unconscious compensates with its cast's full-tilt commitment to rip-snorting farce.

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

  [Billy] Wilder would have loved this razor-timed, feather-light comedy set in sexually repressed 1913 Spain.

• Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com

  Oristrell is a modern day Woody Allen, although with a better sense of rhythm and naughty buffoonery. You'll laugh from corners of your subconscious you didn't know you had.

• Eric Lurio, Greenwich Village Gazette

  When it is good it is very, very good, and when it's not it's mediocre.

• Kam Williams, Black Star News

  Everything you always wanted to know about sex, and then some. A bawdy, early Woody Allen-esque slapstick comedy!

• Ken Fox, TV Guide's Movie Guide

  Film is ultimately unsure of what it wants to say about modernity, psychoanalysis and all it liberates.

• Katey Rich, Film Journal International

  Even with nothing more redeeming than a lot of good one-liners, Unconscious has a charm that your ego, superego and id can all enjoy.

• Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine

  The film is so opulently and noisily aestheticized it gives the illusion of being smarter than it is, though it benefits from some endearing performances.

• Ted Murphy, Murphy's Movie Reviews

  one of the most visually stunning and original movies to come along in a while.

• Timothy Knight, Reel.com

  Spanish writer/director Joaquin Oristell brings 2006 to a mostly delightful close with Unconscious, a clever and sweetly risqué period farce brimming with frothy charm and tongue-in-cheek wit.

Read all 18 critic reviews