39
Metascore
23 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- You don't leave the theater feeling swindled and you don't leave wishing you'd seen a home run. In this case, a triple is just fine.
- 70The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinStill, watching the plot unfold remains fun, if only for its "Can you top this?" brand of craziness.
- 67Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAustin ChronicleMarc SavlovKline and Spacey are excellent here, playing off of each other like a couple of professional combatants; it's by far the most interesting thriller in the last six months.
- 50VarietyBrian LowryVarietyBrian LowryConsenting Adults initially seems a little brainier than its brethren but soon gives way to the same cavernous lapses in logic and formula ending, though the cast and clear appeal of the genre could insure a strong opening and modest long-term box office life.
- CONSENTING ADULTS shows that the urban thriller genre spawned by FATAL ATTRACTION has run out of gas. Viewers who have seen such films as THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE, SINGLE WHITE FEMALE and UNLAWFUL ENTRY are unlikely to enjoy this derivative effort; it's the same paranoid mayhem--and not as much fun.
- 40Washington PostHal HinsonWashington PostHal HinsonThe second half of the film -- that is, everything after the dubious wife-swapping -- is as mindless and sloppy as the first half is sharp.
- 40Orlando SentinelJay BoyarOrlando SentinelJay BoyarWhat's unusual about Consenting Adults (which opens today) is that virtually everything is implausible. In fact, my bull detector hasn't beeped so much since the last time I went shopping for a new car. If I were to list everything that happens in the film that strains credulity, I'd be here until Woody and Mia get back together. Plus I'd make some of you angry by revealing too many secrets. [16 Oct 1992, p.19]
- 30Time OutTime OutTwenty years after the taut Klute, Pakula's touch has deserted him; the glossy, literalist approach he favours here works firmly against the arrant contrivances in Matthew Chapman's screenplay, rendering already convoluted events even more ridiculous.
- 25Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanThis is the sort of cloddish thriller in which characters keep putting themselves in dangerous situations because…the movie requires them to be in dangerous situations. The one true surprise has nothing at all to do with the plot: It’s Kevin Spacey’s hair. Dyed a glittering blond, it sets off his smirky, come-hither mug with maximum perversity.
- 25Boston GlobeJay CarrBoston GlobeJay CarrThe real problem is a script from hell - or at least one of the dingier suburbs of limbo. Some scripts are beyond belief. This one is beneath it. [16 Oct 1992, p.48]