A Midnight Clear - Movie Reviews

A Midnight Clear is powerful without being overbearing.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 28, 2018

He infuses A Midnight Clear with a slightly skewed, surreal quality. About the only defect in Gordon's second feature is its tendency to drag in the middle.

Full Review | Jun 8, 2018

The sentiments aren`t fresh, but the skill of the writing and a superior ensemble American cast makes the drama memorable.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 30, 2015

A Midnight Clear is a beautifully written, directed and acted movie, but it is so gut-wrenching, so taut, that it is more catharsis than entertainment.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 30, 2015

A Midnight Clear doesn't do as much as it might with its characters. But as a parable of human folly and fragile hope, it has considerable impact.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 4, 2013

[Gordon] clearly relishes the story's many ironies, and he's often successful at sharing his enjoyment of them with us.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 4, 2013

This film about a real incident that occurred near the end of World War II is involving, always focused and affectingly acted.

Full Review | Dec 4, 2013

A powerful tragedy full of surprises and visual style.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 4, 2013

Keith Gordon's adap of William Wharton's novel is low on action, long on mood and psychological complexity.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 4, 2013

It's so determined to be haunting that it gives up the ghost.

Full Review | Dec 4, 2013

A Midnight Clear -- not quite a great war movie but certainly a sensitive, bright and supremely moral one -- shows how courage itself can be a kind of insanity.

Full Review | Dec 4, 2013

Much of it has a seriousness and intelligence that are all too rare on today's movie scene.

Full Review | Dec 4, 2013

Despite such peculiarities, or perhaps because of them, A Midnight Clear has a quirky, haunting quality, delivering good performances all around, but especially from Sinise, Hawke and Frank Whaley.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 4, 2013

"In combat, confusion is normal," an Army manual helpfully pointed out in World War II. That same confusion seems to have infected A Midnight Clear.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 4, 2013

This fable about the futility of the war benefits not only from fine performances but an intelligent and literate offscreen narration that enhances the movie's conceptual integrity.

Full Review | Dec 4, 2012

It acknowledges war as a fact, but embraces pacifism.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Jul 6, 2010

This skilful adaptation of William Wharton's novel creates close relationships between each character. Strong performances and precise direction help maintain them to the surprise ending.

Full Review | Dec 5, 2008

The pristine, snowbound setting gives the film a still, other-worldly quality, and makes for some arresting images, particularly that of a German and an American corpse frozen in a posthumous embrace.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 4, 2006

The performances are uniformly excellent as the film moves inexorably towards bloody confrontation and spiritual reckoning.

Full Review | Feb 9, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 21, 2005