57
Metascore
21 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80EmpireIan NathanEmpireIan NathanHardly a barrel of laughs then, but this slowburn tale sears its way onto the synapses and then flat refuses to budge.
- 78Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenFlesh and Bone is far from a comfortable experience to witness, so if you like your films “over easy” this will not be to your liking. But if you like entertainment that cuts to the marrow, then Flesh and Bone is something to see.
- 75ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliFlesh and Bone is all suspenseful buildup without shoot-outs, chases, and explosions, and its conclusion doesn't demand a neatly-packaged resolution. More importantly, it's one of the few successful '40s-type noir thrillers to grace the big screen in recent years.
- 75Boston GlobeJay CarrBoston GlobeJay CarrFew directors lavish as much tenderness upon life's bruised survivors as Kloves does, and many a more prominent director has failed to find in the dust-choked West Texas plains the wistfulness with which Quaid and Ryan fill their most solid and shtick-free work yet. [05 Nov 1993, p.42]
- 70The New YorkerAnthony LaneThe New YorkerAnthony LaneAlthough the plot comes to rely on a particularly outlandish series of coincidences, it’s a credit to Kloves’s skill that you can almost put this out of your mind and enjoy his long, suspended scenes, brimming with lust or the need to lash out.
- 70The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinMost of what keeps Flesh and Bone so gripping is the ways in which the characters themselves evolve.
- 60Washington PostRita KempleyWashington PostRita KempleyKloves has taken us on one more ride down this same old Texas highway, with its cheap motels and gloomy cowboys. Ain't much more to it than that.
- 50Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThe past traps the present, fate smothers spontaneity, and all of the dialog sounds like Dialog - not what people would say, but what characters would say. The film is depressing for some of the right reasons, and all of the wrong ones.
- 50Washington PostDesson ThomsonWashington PostDesson ThomsonIf you go to this, anticipate neither an endearing Quaid-Ryan vehicle nor a fully satisfying art film. By trying to satisfy opposing demands, Kloves misses the spirit of both and is left only with flesh and bone.
- 50Time OutTime OutThe performances are sound, but for much of the time the film seems undecided whether it's a mystery, a romance, a social document or an art movie. And that indecision is fatal, stifling the life out of what might have been an effective little thriller.