Lemming 2005

Critics score:
71 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Marta Barber, Miami Herald: Holds enough interest throughout to keep you entertained -- unless you're afraid of mice. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Dominik Moll's masterfully cast psychological thriller Lemming crackles with tension; its story keeps going off to unexpected places as we watch breathlessly, unable to look away. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: It's a tale of normality invaded by pathology. But here, the danger seems less plausible, the conflict more contrived. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: The actors are more than equal to their eccentric roles, and the film is well worth seeing as a tantalizingly cerebral and unpredictable thriller. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Moll makes movies that look like they're inspired by Alfred Hitchcock, but feel like Luis Bunuel working in high bourgeoisie-baiting mode. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Even by the strictest standards of odd French psychological drama, the behavior here is particularly opaque. Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: The theme is hidden desire, but the trip feels like a stale museum tour of the usual psychodrama tropes -- voyeurism, ghosts, sexual fantasy, dream imagery, murder -- without the goose-bumps-on-your-brain payoff. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: More disturbing than thrilling, Lemming, like Alice, overstays its welcome, but does get around to a finishing kick. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The movie, which has the slightly glum perversity of early Chabrol, is a dream of betrayal. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: Moll is exquisitely attuned to the way sound rubs up against silence, dark against light, and his shading of psychology into the supernatural is deliciously mischievous. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: Lemming exhibits the same crafty manipulation of audience fears and sympathies as Harry, as well as a keen ability to weave ambiguity and dark emotional subtext into tense, one-on-one encounters. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: A unique, absurdist ghost story. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Imagine a movie that combines the suspense of Hitchcock with the inscrutable sexuality of David Lynch's films and you're looking at French director Dominik Moll's Lemming. Read more

Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times: This spooky, quasi-sci-fi, psychological thriller is unclear about what's real and what's not -- and not in any interesting way. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Lisa Nesselson, Variety: Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: In the end, Moll's film may be too neat (and too lengthy), but the wallop of disquiet is delicious. Read more