The Road to Guantanamo 2006

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: The moviemakers tell the trio's engrossing story with a mix of battering immediacy, precision and discretion that puts you totally in the movie's grip. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Watching this melange of journalism and dramatic license can be enthralling and maddening at the same time, because the ring of truth, which the film has, is not the same as the truth, which remains unknown. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: It makes its point in a way that a straight documentary could not. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: A film that must be seen to understand the sad truths of our times. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: It's stunning and it's certain to spark a lot of discussion. But as a film, as a piece of art I think it's a very important piece of art. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: One-sided and, in part, anti-American, but via the fictionalized sequences, the directors convey more angles of the story. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: An unconventional and mostly effective mix of documentary and dramatization... Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Road to Guantanamo is chilling as a snapshot of how the world changed for average Arab and Muslim men after 9/11. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: Although its methodology raises some questions, The Road to Guantanamo provides a riveting glimpse into a heavily shrouded political and moral quagmire that deepens by the day. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Winterbottom's re-enactors do a persuasive job of depicting young men whose ad hoc decision to travel from Pakistan to Afghanistan put them solidly in the wrong-place/wrong-time category. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: ...oddly unilluminating. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: An unblushingly partisan blend of documentary with dramatic action. Read more

Stephen Williams, Newsday: Reality and make-believe get more than mixed: They get muddled. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: In the Gitmo depicted by filmmakers Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross, all prisoners, guilty and innocent, are treated with such systematic sadism that taking one's life is arguably a proportionate response. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: While the story is significant, the filmmaking is flawed. It seems like Guantanamo was rushed out for newsy impact when it really could have used some more fine tuning before release. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: The movie begins as a not very compelling or particularly convincing road movie, and turns into a riveting prison drama. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: The Road to Guantanamo will drive you crazy, if you aren't crazy yet. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: [An] occasionally murky but always engrossing film. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Your view of its accuracy depends entirely on how truthful you feel the narrators are. I found it easy to believe the general outlines of their stories. In times of war, bad things don't happen only to bad people. Read more

Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times: A bracing docu-drama. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: A British docudrama that is as provocative as it is timely. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: It actually displays a remarkable rectitude when it comes to dramatizing its subjects' ordeal. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: A few flaws undermine the moral, political and dramatic force of the filmmakers' 'argument.' Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: A riveting and disturbing documentary that falls short of greatness by not providing enough insight into the characters. Read more

Deborah Young, Variety: Powerfully co-directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross, the film has a winning combo of excitement and topicality. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Although the Tiptons are ultimately unbroken after two years in prison camp, The Road to Guantanamo is one of the most oppressive accounts of life in a military detention. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: As pure documentary, the film brilliantly conjures without romanticization the chaos, squalor and fragility of Pakistan on the edge of what is just about to become a war zone. Read more