69
Metascore
17 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottHannah Arendt conveys the glamour, charisma and difficulty of a certain kind of German thought.... The movie turns ideas into the best kind of entertainment.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungThe Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungVon Trotta seems to borrow some of her subject’s haughty disdain for compromise in a serviceable script that does the job of telling us who Hannah Arendt was like a good pair of solid, gray walking shoes; there’s nothing fancy or modern to distract from the portrait of one of the most important thinkers of the century.
- 80Village VoiceMarsha McCreadieVillage VoiceMarsha McCreadieThe writer-philosopher Hannah Arendt is brought to life by a mesmerizing Barbara Sukowa in Margarethe von Trotta's film.
- 80SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirTalky but fascinating period drama.
- 75Portland OregonianMarc MohanPortland OregonianMarc MohanA watchable, even suspenseful portrait of a woman who spends most of the film smoking cigarettes, sitting at typewriters or sparring at dinner parties.
- 75The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenEn route, despite some clumsy exposition and the reduction of heavyweights like Mary McCarthy and William Shawn to fifth-business caricatures, the film does manage one impressive intellectual achievement of its own: rescuing that “banality of evil” phrase from the banal cliché it’s become and, by providing the full and daring context, giving it real meaning again.
- 67The A.V. ClubNick SchagerThe A.V. ClubNick SchagerOpting to leave somewhat open the question of whether its subject was a traitor to her Jewish people or a conscientious scholar determined to conduct rational analysis free of public and peer pressure, it remains a mildly intriguing drama of the often unavoidable and contentious intersection of intellectual analysis and personal prejudices.
- 63Slant MagazineChuck BowenSlant MagazineChuck BowenThe film's most striking quality, and it's not insignificant, is director Margarethe von Trotta's refusal to fossilize the controversies she dramatizes.
- 60Time OutMichael AtkinsonTime OutMichael AtkinsonA movie of one billion cigarettes, Hannah Arendt is about moral reason, not personality. It could do worse than lead you straight to the woman’s books.
- 50VarietyRobert KoehlerVarietyRobert KoehlerVon Trotta’s Arendt biopic feels like a movie stuck in another era, stolid and rote, more of an outline for a dramatic treatment than the real thing.