Twisted 2004

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: The script is credited to Sarah Thorp but has all the hallmarks of one of those screenplays that has gotten worse with every rewrite. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Bearable but hardly riveting. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It's all perfectly rote and only occasionally satisfying. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: A barren movie full of new-style cliches and bereft of the Gothic thrills, virtuoso scenes and screw-twisting suspense that might make it interesting or fun to watch. Read more

Chicago Reader: This thriller seems most interested in lingering over battered and bloodied male faces. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: This movie plays like they were reading [Roger Ebert's] little movie glossary and they took every cliche in there. Read more

Bob Townsend, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: What happens when you combine good actors, a talented director and an awful script? Twisted answers that question so quickly it could have been made as a kind of negative case study for film students. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Twisted is eerily similar in its story line to In the Cut, the much pasted Meg Ryan sex-and-death thriller that came out last year. Only it's worse. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: Twisted is rubbish, but it looks good enough, moves fast enough and does improve as it progresses, principally because its plot disintegrates to the point of outright comedy. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: Hard-hitting police thrillers need a smidgen of authenticity, but Sarah Thorp's script is riddled with implausible events, inconsistent characters and head-scratching twists that don't add up. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: The arrival of such a dud from director Kaufman is a surprise, unless he was looking for any script that would keep him at home shooting in San Francisco. Read more

Scott Brown, Entertainment Weekly: A pretty lousy movie, which would be offensive were it not safely neutered by its own stupidity. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Twisted's biggest mystery has nothing to do with its plot. The big question is how a first-rate director such as Phil Kaufman and a moderately first-rate cast headed by Ashley Judd became attached to this convoluted thriller wannabe. Read more

Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly: [An] insipid embarrassment. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: It's one of those by-the- book mysteries that makes you feel smart by keeping you a half-step ahead of the protagonist, then leaves you feeling stupid for having blown another 10 bucks. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: A chill-deficient suspense flick that shares too much common ominous ground with [Judd's] past thrillers. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: We can only regret that this is the kind of script [Kaufman's] being offered these days. Now, that's twisted. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: The outdated, cliche-riddled direction is so inept and indifferent that it's hard to believe Twisted was lensed by the same Philip Kaufman who made The Right Stuff. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: The greatest mystery in this nonsensical thriller is why Philip Kaufman, a first-rate director, lent his talents to such a mediocre piece of studio hackwork. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: The film is too simple to hold our interest for nearly two hours. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Twisted is just another example of a motion picture that will surprise and delight only those who see movies less frequently than they see their dentist. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Walks like a thriller and talks like a thriller, but it squawks like a turkey. Read more

Charles Taylor, Salon.com: Judd is let down by Twisted because tearful, confused victim doesn't come naturally to her; she's not fun to watch suffer if you can't see her calculating the payback. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It begins pretty, and ends up ugly. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Twisted won't leave you wrung out, but it may put a crick in your neck. Trying to make sense of this ridiculous yet all too conventional movie will only make you cock your head quizzically, like a dog watching television. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: It's always rather sad to watch gifted performers stranded in a tepid thriller. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Philip Kaufman's Twisted amalgamates the basic post-feminist woman-cop premises of Silence Of The Lambs and the Prime Suspect TV series so torpidly it feels less like entertainment than a community service sentence. Read more

Time Out: Sarah Thorpe's screenplay is a compendium of by-the-book cliches; Kaufman's direction leaves the material stranded in a limbo between po-faced and trashy; Judd's approximation of drunkenness is worrying to behold. Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: Twisted leads to a wrap-up that'll either be visible a continent away or have you moaning, 'No, no, they can't have the nerve to float that!' Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: Dreary, weary psychosexual thriller that's neither sexy nor thrilling. Read more

Jorge Morales, Village Voice: A suspense thriller without thrills or suspense. Read more