72
Metascore
24 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Film ThreatTom MeekFilm ThreatTom MeekThe result is crisp, brutal and utterly inspirational.
- 88ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliAnd, while there's nothing revolutionary or extraordinary about the dramatic narrative, the subtext gives Winterbottom's movie its force.
- 80SalonCharles TaylorSalonCharles TaylorWinterbottom's film is openly a polemic. Messy and visceral, with an articulate, pointed anger that's recognizably British, Welcome to Sarajevo hits with an impact that's not diminished by the fact that Sarajevo's uneasy peace has held.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannSan Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannThe result is startling and repellent -- a challenge to filmgoers accustomed to fake gunfire, fake wounds and cosmeticized death.
- 75San Francisco ExaminerBarbara ShulgasserSan Francisco ExaminerBarbara ShulgasserThe movie is well made by director Michael Winterbottom ("Jude"), with a minimum of overdramatics.
- 75Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittIn keeping with this background, the movie boldly incorporates actual newsreel footage - with authentic images of human suffering, some of them seen in TV reports on the war - into its conventionally scripted and acted story.
- 67Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAustin ChronicleMarc SavlovTomei looks far too fresh-scrubbed to be anywhere near a bloody, messy hell like this, but the rest of the cast is grimly realistic, particularly Harrelson, who manages to bring some goofball credibility to what is essentially a very small role.
- 60The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinYet this film, for all its apparent immediacy, winds up less affecting than a more poetic or roundabout approach might be.
- 50Chicago ReaderChicago ReaderIt keeps the gag quotient lower than Reds but has a similar effect: more urgent in its desire to make us care about the events it depicts, it nonetheless reduces the war in Bosnia to mere scenery for the hackneyed journey of a world-weary journalist from cynicism to caring activism.
- 50Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThe problem is that Winterbottom has imagined both stories and several others, and tells them in a style designed to feel as if reality has been caught on the fly.