61
Metascore
29 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeLovely, elegant, and curiously opaque ... The film’s many ballet scenes are stunning, to say the least.
- 80CineVueLucy PopescuCineVueLucy PopescuAn evocative portrait ... Fiennes utilises a good balance of biography and ballet; emphasising how much Nureyev loved to dance and why, when forced, he chose artistic freedom over love of country.
- 60The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawHare cleverly suggests Nureyev’s mixture of courage, hauteur, emotional damage and cool self-appraisal; the Soviet authorities cannot threaten him through his family because he long ago left them behind. An athletic, confident, undemanding film.
- A serious-minded, often beautiful, utterly heartfelt character study that nevertheless lacks its astonishing protagonist’s fleet-footedness and only partly captures what made him tick.
- 50Slant MagazinePat BrownSlant MagazinePat BrownRalph Fiennes’s film too conspicuously avoids an overt political perspective.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyWriter David Hare and director Ralph Fiennes have a good feel for the artistic world the story inhabits and professional dancer Oleg Ivenko does a more than creditable job in personifying one of the 20th century’s most celebrated artistic figures, but the narrative bounces all over the place trying to cover too much ground when concentrating on the core drama would have far better served the desired end.
- 40TheWrapCandice FrederickTheWrapCandice FrederickThe film’s constant waltz between moods is aggravating at best. It becomes unclear whether we are even supposed to root for Rudolf, or if it matters that we do.