Silver CityMovie Reviews

Gifts + Promos

The Vow Free Gift

Buy tickets & receive a FREE 3-Month Love Forecast from Astrology.com!

Fandango Bucks

Send your sweetheart the gift of movies this Valentine’s Day!

Journey Sweeps

Enter for a chance to win a trip for 2 to Nicaragua!

Interactive Oscar Ballot

Who's taking home the Oscar? Cast your vote & challenge your friends on Facebook!

Need Help?
So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 47 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
15 Iffy for 15+
Read Common Sense Media review

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

  • 88
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    The movie's strength, then, is not in its outrage, but in its cynicism and resignation. Read full review

  • 75
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    The real action in Silver City happens on the fringes, where the mischief is. Daryl Hannah is spice incarnate as Dickie's sexy screw-up sister. Billy Zane plays a lobbyist with insinuating soullessness. And Dreyfuss feasts on the snappiest lines. Read full review

  • 70
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    It's a cracking good detective yarn with hints of "Chinatown" and Raymond Chandler, and it's a sharp political lampoon of things we're all reading about on today's front pages. Read full review

  • 63
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Though there's nothing wrong with moral outrage, it doesn't always aid the telling of a complex story. More subtlety might have worked better. Read full review

  • 50
    Los Angeles Times | Kenneth Turan

    A series of miscalculations caused this project to lose its way, until what we're left with is a film that should involve us more than it does. Read full review

  • 50
    The New York Times | Dana Stevens

    Nobody in it seems organically connected to anybody else. In a movie devoted to the idea that everything and everyone is connected, this is a serious failing, and it undermines Mr. Sayles's noble intentions. Read full review

  • 50
    San Francisco Chronicle | Ruthe Stein

    Wildly uneven, with long stretches as dull as Dickie. Read full review

  • 40
    Variety | David Rooney

    As both political satire and noirish murder mystery, this Newmarket pickup may be too meandering and unemphatic for wide consumption. Read full review

  • 30
    Washington Post | Desson Thomson

    It tries unsuccessfully to make a wry gumshoe noir out of an overarching, cross-sectional political diagram. Read full review

  • 25
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    Silver City may be the mustiest political-conspiracy tale ever filmed; it's like "Chinatown" rewritten by Ralph Nader. Read full review

View more reviews for Silver City on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 15+ Drama is too intense for kids and young teens.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this movie has a lot of mature material, including explicit sexual references and situations, very strong language, and violence. Characters are in peril and some are badly injured or killed. Characters drink and smoke cigarettes and marijuana. While some characters exhibit racism, a strength of the movie is the loyal and respectful relationships between people of different races and its own frank portrayal of issues of race and class.
  • Families can talk about how accurately it portrays political issues relating to immigration, development, and the role of lobbyists. They could also talk about the ways that characters try to shape the way that information reaches politicians, the media, and the public.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: Characters in peril, dead body, guns, characters killed.
  • sex false5 Sex: Explicit sexual references and situations.
  • language false5 Language: Some very strong language including "f--k."
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Drinking, smoking, drug use.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

Silver City Movie Ratings + Reviews

Fans say

Be the first to rate
this movie!

Critics say

So-so See all critic reviews

Facebook Movie Fans

Fan Fandango on Facebook