54
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliThe film is worthwhile primarily for the fun, breezy first hour. After that, it's a case of watching to find out how things turn out.
- 75New York PostKyle SmithNew York PostKyle SmithDirector Griffin Dunne's adaptation of Dirk Wittenborn's fiercely personal novel ambles pleasantly through coming-of-age movie territory, then takes a jarring Agatha Christie detour.
- 70VarietyRonnie ScheibVarietyRonnie ScheibWhenever Sutherland comes on scene, any inadequacies in the film's depiction of the well-to-do become irrelevant.
- 70Village VoiceVillage VoiceWhereas most of the injustices suffered by "Nanny's" nanny are of the skin-deep variety, the hopelessly reductive Fierce People ups the ante.
- Fierce People's first hour is dominated by brittle social satire, but in its third act, the film takes a jarring turn toward tremblingly sincere melodrama it can't pull off.
- 60The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenWhen F. Scott Fitzgerald remarked that the rich “are different from you and me,” he might have been thinking of someone like the moody billionaire from Fierce People.
- 50TV Guide MagazineKen FoxTV Guide MagazineKen FoxNot even the always reliable Diane Lane can save this one.
- 50New York Daily NewsJack MathewsNew York Daily NewsJack MathewsWhat might have read as a dense allegory comparing the rituals of the super-rich with the tribal customs of the violent Ishkanani tribe in the Amazon becomes a tedious, over-ripe soap opera on screen.
- Dunne and Wittenborn, who adapted his book, work too hard at stressing just how ruthless the unspoken standards of the stinking rich can be, leading to a story-pivoting act of brutality toward Finn that careens the movie into a tonal wilderness that it never recovers from.
- The idea that rich people are an alien tribe is just one of many that get lost in Wittenborn’s distracted script. Instead of exploring the concept, he throws out random incidents until he hits one that sends the film into a dark, grotesque spiral.