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Metascore®61 out of 100 | Generally favorable reviews

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 70
    Wall Street Journal | Joe Morgenstern

    A thoroughly serious film, full of vivid details, but also a relentlessly serious one that requires Mr. Wilson to spend a great deal of time looking disconsolate. Read full review

  • 70
    The Hollywood Reporter | Frank Scheck

    Although Evil eventually suffers from its heavy-handed treatment of its subject, it is a well-made and engrossing melodrama. Read full review

  • 70
    Variety | David Stratton

    Evil is not, as the title would suggest, a horror film, at least not a conventional one. Based on the autobiographical novel by Jan Guillou and set in the mid-1950s, the film relates the experiences of a troubled young man who's enrolled into a hidebound private school. Read full review

  • 67
    The Onion (A.V. Club) | Scott Tobias

    It's more about giving rich bullies the same comeuppance afforded to sneering wardens with bullwhips, and on those superficial grounds, it's reasonably gripping. Read full review

  • 63
    Chicago Tribune | Michael Phillips

    Bullying is not easy to watch on screen, even--or perhaps especially--if the viewer had the fortune to avoid either side of the bully/bullied equation. Read full review

  • 60
    The New York Times | Stephen Holden

    The movie is as blunt as its title. It portrays such behavior as "evil" without offering any deep insights or revelations, beyond handing out the plot equivalent of a lollipop at the end of the movie as compensation for the vicarious anguish. Read full review

  • 50
    Village Voice | Ben Kenigsberg

    Is this an allegory against blind deference to fascism? It might be, but the root-for-the-Aryan-jock dramatics seem mildly fascist themselves. Read full review

  • 30
    Los Angeles Times | Robert Abele

    Director Mikael Hafström's dramatic sense is so pedestrian and snail's-pace obvious -- since this 2003 feature, he's made the leap to Hollywood with the plodding thriller "Derailed" -- one starts biding time for the inevitable retributive smackdown that will save our hero from the gantlet of draggy high-mindedness about counteracting fascism with stony resolve. Read full review

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