Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Russian Ark does for the history-blind what any halfway decent drug movie can do to nonjunkies: pushes a mean contact high. Read more
Marta Barber, Miami Herald: Even in its most tedious scenes, Russian Ark is mesmerizing. Read more
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: The choreography, the technical wizardry, is so impressive that I have to recommend it. Read more
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: A extraordinary film, one that, like the museum itself, captures and shows three centuries of Russian culture and history in all its beauty, confusion, terror and majesty. Read more
Stephen Holden, New York Times: A magnificent conjuring act, an eerie historical mirage evoked in a single sweeping wave of the hand by Alexander Sokurov. Read more
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: From the craft point of view, this film by Russian director Alexander Sokurov is all but unprecedented, but that hasn't gotten in the way of its beauty and its soul. Read more
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Part pageant and museum tour, part theme-park ride and historical meditation. Read more
Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: This is a stunning film, a one-of-a-kind tour de force. Read more
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The movie is a meditation on the love and envy that Russia has always felt toward Europe, and I won't pretend I got more than 30 percent of what was going on. Read more
Jennie Punter, Globe and Mail: The experience of watching Russian Ark is like being caught inside another person's dream. Read more
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: The camera work is fluid, the concept intriguing. Read more
Henry Sheehan, L.A. Weekly: Russian Ark doesn't act so much as it muses: on art, on history, on Russia versus the West, on politics. Read more
John Anderson, Newsday: The fluid motion is astounding on any number of levels -- including the physical demands made on Buttner -- and it implies in its wake the intractable, irreversible flow of history. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Apart from anything else, this is one of the best-sustained ideas I have ever seen on the screen. Read more
Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle: Merely as a technical, logistical feat, Russian Ark marks a cinematic milestone. Read more
Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: 'What's the Russian word for Wow!?' Read more
Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: This is as immersive-and as Shining-level spooky-as history gets. Read more
Aaron Cutler, Village Voice: The movie's smooth voyage comes to seem like a dream play, suspended painlessly in time. Read more
J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Blithely anachronistic and slyly achronological. Read more