I'll Sleep When I'm Dead 2003

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Stylish as it may be, it's as though someone has already remade Get Carter badly and Hodges is set on showing how it should have been done. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Languorous, elliptical and dull. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Those with the patience to adapt to its pace will find rewards. Read more

Carla Meyer, San Francisco Chronicle: Mood and portent can conceal any number of flaws in movies about the thug life. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: Thumbs way up ... Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Feels undernourished in plot, characterization, and dialogue, and what should play with minimalist high tension is allowed to sag lower and lower until it simply grounds out. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: Matching the movie's restrained style, Owen is extraordinarily still, and all the more riveting because of it. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: The pleasures that even a brutal, intelligent thriller should deliver are in short supply. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: [Hodges] still knows how to unspool a mystery with a hypnotic pace of sadistic intrigue. Read more

Gary Dowell, Dallas Morning News: Unfortunately, the characters and their motivations are so poorly defined that the story seems vague and incomplete. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: Preston's stiff screenplay hangs heavy with neo-Mamet expletives and psychological blather about the mind of the rapist and the immutability of evil. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: Works to shake free of noir directives, to the point where it loses direction altogether. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: All that talent, all going to waste. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: This plodding British revenge thriller has less energy than a pint of Bass that has sat out overnight. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Does the film work? All I know is that it stays in my mind for its ambitiously autumnal essence, but it may not be everyone's cup of tea. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: A tight, well-made, evocative piece of filmmaking for true connoisseurs of gangster movies that is unnerving, yet completely sure of every step it takes. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Revenge is a dish served again and again in the movies, and connoisseurs will note the special British flavor that Mike Hodges brings to the table. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: This is a movie that will put ADD sufferers to sleep, while simultaneously rewarding those who have the patience to see it through. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: There is a tangible pleasure in following enigmatic characters through the shadows of their lives. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: I'll Sleep When I'm Dead is an elegiac movie, but it's flinty, too. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: This is Owen's picture. He broods, he seethes, he plots. Sometimes he even speaks, but it's not necessary. One glance from Will is enough to send chills down anyone's spine. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: Read more

Derek Elley, Variety: A consciously anti-dramatic, contempo Western, set in Wales and London, in which echoes of oaters ring loud but without much resonance. Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: Hodges is clearly attempting a restrained, art-film ellipticism by letting us know very little about his characters, but because everyone's working hard at being underworld-movie cool, we come away utterly empty-handed. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: It has great mood and a sense of the toughness of the London underworld, but it never really gets into gear. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: The spare and unsparing tone of I'll Sleep When I'm Dead makes it as existential -- and as original -- a whodunit as they come. Read more