Blood Ties 2013

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Blood Ties, in the guise of a crime thriller, creates a panorama of broken lives trying to put themselves back together. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: It all feels so familiar, from the beleaguered female characters, to the scene-setting anthems ("New York Groove" is well-used, admittedly), to the predictable eruptions of violence. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: A sluggish, dramatically undernourished saga. Read more

Jesse Hassenger, AV Club: Blood Ties comes off as a weird, misshapen version of a '70s-style thriller-almost as if it's lacking contemporary examples to follow. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The performers carry on - Owen is particularly good - but this bird doesn't fly. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: This overlong and anemic drama features an impressive cast but is too inert to catch on with critics or audiences. Read more

Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times: There's a heft to the proceedings that keeps us invested even when the story's various strands start to unravel. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Intriguing performances, and a sense of '70s American cinema that seems to have been preserved in a lava lamp. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: I share Canet's affection for Sidney Lumet films full of scraggly sideburns and big brown Fleetwoods the size of the QE2. But if you really appreciated those movies, you'd use your memories of them to jumpstart something new. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Fine actors are let down by a comatose script and wayward direction in this retro crime drama. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: [A] his laborious, tonally wobbly attempt at an American crime epic. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: An ambitious, if disappointing, period crime drama featuring Clive Owen and Billy Crudup as warring brothers on opposite sides of the law. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: If you hear an unearthly sound during Blood Ties, it might be Sidney Lumet's ghost attempting to contact his lawyer. Read more

Michael Nordine, Village Voice: Seems to be the continuation of a narrative that only exists in its characters' heads. Read more