43
Metascore
20 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 60The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenThe film, adapted from a novel by James Hadley Chase, aspires to out-noir every other film noir that has been lumped under that popular term, including "The Big Sleep" (which it resembles), in plot trickery and steaminess.
- 50Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThe movie has elements of the genre and lacks only pacing and plausibility. You wait through scenes that unfold with maddening deliberation, hoping for a payoff--and when it comes, you feel cheated.
- 50Film ThreatFilm ThreatWhat begins as a lush, pulpy gothic laced with intrigue quickly spins into a convoluted web of over engineered and preposterous plot twists.
- 50The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenThe result, as a colleague once so aptly put it, is less film noir than film beige.
- 50ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliThere's not a moment of originality in the entire motion picture.
- 50San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSan Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleThere's no buildup and little shape. Scenes are strong, but the movie as a whole flags.
- 50San Francisco ExaminerBarbara ShulgasserSan Francisco ExaminerBarbara ShulgasserThe script, based on British pulp writer James Hadley Chase's novel "Just Another Sucker," is a muddle, and no actors, no matter how compelling or talented, could make its silly dialogue work.
- 50Chicago ReaderLisa AlspectorChicago ReaderLisa AlspectorBecause so many female characters spend so much time trying to seduce Harrelson (usually successfully), the notion that multiplicity enhances intrigue is pretty worn out by the time any duplicity is revealed.
- 40New York Magazine (Vulture)New York Magazine (Vulture)Palmetto is an unconvincing, paint-by-numbers pass at American noir by the usually ambitious German director Volker Schlondorff (The Tin Drum).
- Revelations of betrayals, faked identities and double-crosses come in waves in the last half-hour of Palmetto, but by then, the film has raised the one question it can't answer: Who cares?