58
Metascore
26 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger Moore13 Minutes is a taut, smart and straightforward bio-drama of this largely forgotten early figure in German resistance to the Hitler regime.
- 67The PlaylistJessica KiangThe PlaylistJessica Kiang13 Minutes is an elegant, expensive-looking, respectful history lesson that finds just enough interesting texture in terms of the religious, social, moral, and personal circumstances that led to the creation of this rogue ideologue, to save it from becoming dry.
- 60CineVueBen NicholsonCineVueBen NicholsonThe story begins with the film's defining act and most accomplished sequence but, despite handsome execution, never hits those heights again in a plot where familiarity severely dampens the squib.
- 60EmpireIan NathanEmpireIan NathanDespite moody flashbacks to the Nazi takeover, Hirschbiegel draws a blank. Elser remains an enigma, a great what-if whose German torturers cannot comprehend acted alone.
- 60The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawA decently acted, heartfelt film.
- 60Time Out LondonDave CalhounTime Out LondonDave CalhounIt’s an important story, of course, but only mildly engaging as cinema.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe movie is well acted and mostly absorbing, but it spells out everything so painstakingly that there's zero room for subtext.
- 42The Film StageGiovanni Marchini CamiaThe Film StageGiovanni Marchini CamiaShedding little light on the circumstances of Elser’s failed attempt and even less on the broader history that surrounds it, 13 Minutes presents a redundant historical “what if” that leaves itself open to charges of relativization.
- 40Total FilmTom DawsonTotal FilmTom DawsonThis stiffly scripted film never quite stirs the emotions.
- Somehow, this celebration of early resistance to the Nazis, with its overbearing sentimentalism and lacquered, Oscar-hungry sheen, manages to trace the familiar contours of countless other dramas set in the period. Subtle this film is not.