The Mauritanian

"Riveting, rage-inducing..."

"The movie lands, through no fault of its own other than timing, with a whiff of been-there, done-that."

"The Mauritanian transforms a memoir of unlawful detention into just another shouty courtroom drama."

"Flavourless characters and a blizzard of flashbacks further repel our involvement in a drama whose timing, to say the least, is unfortunate."

"Rahim noses The Mauritanian just over the line into the realm of a mild recommendation."

"It's a steady, compelling accounting of events that intends to leave you infuriated and succeeds."

"The Mauritanian is a moral muddle as well as a narrative one."

"The Mauritanian fails to humanise the story it's telling, never coming off as something more challenging or interesting than a superficial, manipulative accounting of true events."

"Tahar Rahim does a brilliant job of portraying the title character... with Jodie Foster in prime form as his lawyer."

"The Mauritanian... gets one thing very right: Tahar Rahim's masterful central performance."

"An adaptation of a Guantanamo prisoner’s memoir splits its time between legal drama and P.O.W. survivalist tale - and gives you one first-rate performance."

"A solid, old-fashioned piece of entertainment, but not a great movie."

"It won't change the world, but it's worth a watch."

"Scathing, extremely powerful in places, and it never cops out."

"Kevin Macdonald's film never captures the spectrum of a life lived in unimaginable extremis."

"Rahim's strong central performance in Kevin Macdonald's drama makes America's recent sins feel even more potent and raw."

"Delivers the shock, outrage and ultimate comeuppance that audiences expect..."

"Remains strangely flat, despite its star power and a gripping central performance from Tahar Rahim as Slahi."

"Opaque and frustrating."

"Buoyed only by Tahar Rahim's humane performance."

"It's inspired work in the rather dogged circumstances."