Mistérios de Lisboa 2010

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: A boy in a Lisbon orphanage wonders about his origins, and in response a river of stories flows from the mouths of noblemen, ladies, low-born scoundrels, priests, and sinners. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Made for European television and originally divided into six one-hour episodes, the movie now runs an absorbing, astonishingly fast four and a quarter hours. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: An impossible-to-summarize narrative that has, among other things, a love triangle, several flashbacks and a rude gypsy called the Knife-Eater. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: You can study it, like a painting, and then realize, with a gasp, that it has got hold of you like a fever. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: For all its visual invention and full-blooded melodrama, Mysteries Of Lisbon never tilts to full-on crazy. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: The casual way [Ruiz] practices difficult cinema is breathtaking. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, Chicago Reader: Despite the running time (an even longer version was broadcast on Portuguese TV), the movie is never sluggish; on the contrary, it's smart, energetic filmmaking that also makes for engrossing entertainment. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: It's a lot. But if you're at all inclined, it's just right. Read more

Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter: A superbly guilty pleasure for a rainy day. Read more

Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times: The storytelling is straightforward, with a classical sheen, even as mischief and hallucination puncture the serene surface. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: [Ruiz] stages the events with an air of intrigue that's amplified by his sly, insistently roving camera and his sinuous, theatrical long takes. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: It's telling that the movie, after reaching a tidy payoff, takes one last spin into an epilogue that questions the actuality of almost everything that's come before. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: A dull, high-minded soap opera. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: The story is nothing if not convoluted. Characters, subplots and overlapping narratives come and go. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I got a little lost while watching "Mysteries of Lisbon" and enjoyed the experience. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Once you start to ride with the rapturous, gorgeous, digressive symphony of images and words and music in this film it's completely absorbing and unlike anything you've ever seen. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: A sprawling 19th century novel filtered through the mind of a trickster filmmaker, the late Raul Ruiz, who both delights in and subverts his wildly complex and melodramatic source material. Read more

Jennie Punter, Globe and Mail: A sumptuous unravelling of secrets wrapped in tantalizing stories that gradually interconnect the lives of an ensemble of characters who seduce, betray and defend each other in the years surrounding the Peninsular War. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: The production design and costumes are immaculate, while Ruiz's camera glides around soirees, ducks under tables and peers from behind curtains. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: Based on the sprawling 19th-century novel by Camilo Castelo Branco, Chilean director Raul Ruiz renders an equally sprawling tale filled with love and war, violence and vengeance and the search for identity. Read more

Rob Nelson, Variety: Raul Ruiz's head-spinning Mysteries of Lisbon is a period drama of contemporary import -- and of the highest order. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Say what you will about 19th-century literature -- they had stories in those days (and stories within stories). Read more

Mark Jenkins, Washington Post: This isn't one of those epics that uses length as a bludgeon. Rather than sweep, the movie spirals, twisting its viewpoint to reveal tales within tales. Read more