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The Comfort of Strangers

The Comfort of Strangers

1990
Drama
1h 47m
An English couple holiday in Venice to sort out their relationship. There is some friction and distance between them... (imdb)
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The Comfort of Strangers

1990
Drama
1h 47m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 49.01% from 141 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(141)
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Rated 08 Feb 2014
85
75th
Haunting, subtly creepy and atmospheric tale gets better and better as it goes along, helped by brilliantly bizarre performances from Walken and a devilish Mirren, and Schrader's contained, claustrophobic direction. Everett is the one miscast weak link, but Richardson is fine, and the elusive, dreamy nature of proceedings is sustained beautifully until the end credits.
Rated 09 Apr 2017
54
9th
A hard to rate erotic horror. It's almost something great, but it just can't quite pull greatness off. The scenery is beautiful, the concept is interesting, the dialogue is great, and the acting is wonderful. The editing, plotting and pacing, however, is where the film fails. It has several great setups and promises that it just never really delivers on. It has great atmosphere, but it ends up being just that, atmosphere without the needed substance to bring it together. Ultimately, forgettable.
Rated 03 Nov 2019
40
30th
Haunting film with not much of a plot. Nice setting. Spends too much time telling us how beautiful Rupert Everett was. Maybe some more setup or explanation (or lack thereof) would have been more substantial. Or end the movie at the climax. Audio sounded distant in my BFI blu-ray. Fav scene: camera slowly following the hallway.
Rated 14 Aug 2007
50
43rd
Score based on distant memory.
Rated 03 Jun 2020
55
36th
Fairly bloodless take on potentially explosive material. Richardson and Everett are bland and struggle to sustain interest until Walken and Mirren appear, and even then their weak performances ensure that any tension is sucked right out of their awkward encounters. Visually it's superior to most Schrader films, but it's a style that tends towards mannerism, and while it improves in the final act as dark desires become increasingly manifest, the impact is thwarted by a stuffy sense of restraint.
Rated 20 Nov 2009
75
75th
A good script and first rate actors combine for a haunting languid film, Venice is a perfect choice of setting echoing Don't Look Now.
Rated 12 Aug 2014
80
50th
3 brilliant writers, some of the finest thespians working, lensed and scored by 2 Italian masters creating some of their finest work, edited by De Palma's man. Yet somehow, of all these distinctive voices, Pinter's resonates most. Though he's seemingly just adapting a novel, it's his economically stylized ear ridding the exposition of certainty and the characters of transparency, which is just right for a psychothriller so languid and lush that its true nature is only revealed at the very end.

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