61
Metascore
22 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100TV Guide MagazineKen FoxTV Guide MagazineKen FoxOf all the feature films and documentaries to emerge since 9/11, few have been as bold, perceptive or as downright chilling as this thriller.
- 75Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerChristian Science MonitorPeter RainerWhat goes on inside the mind of a terrorist who is willing to blow himself for the cause? The War Within is one of the few films that attempts to deal with this subject in a nonexploitative way.
- 67Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanThe War Within plays effectively off our voyeurism, yet it has such a cloistered, American-eyed view of the nightmare of terrorism that I kept searching for the profound explanation beneath its piecemeal ones.
- 60The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinThe War Within succeeds only as a thriller with some wartime overtones, rather than as a character study that thrills.
- 60The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonThe A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonSometimes too pat and sometimes ragged with omissions and confusions, but it's still a fascinating look outside of that familiar world and into a harsher one.
- 50New York PostNew York PostChillingly realistic but deeply repellent, The War Within is a film that should not have been made.
- 50New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNew York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanDespite an admirable effort to explore topical concerns, both director and actor are obviously overwhelmed by the immensity of the subject matter.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterThe Hollywood ReporterDoes a fairly good job of laying out the basic political motives behind Islamic terrorism. Unfortunately, as a drama, it has its narrative peak in the middle and quickly runs out of story afterward.
- 40Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonVillage VoiceMichael AtkinsonShot in DV by Lisa Rinzler, Joseph Castelo's modest drama struggles for verisimilitude, but it wears clichés like concrete boots, down to the cycle-of-intolerance-and-violence message that we hear every day on NPR.
- 40VarietyRobert KoehlerVarietyRobert KoehlerAn honorable but failed attempt to dramatize the dynamics that propel a basically good man to become a suicide bomber, The War Within contains provocative points inside a dull package.