86
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineThe Magician is still fascinating, presenting a myriad of challenging ideas about magic, reality, and the nature of film itself. The acting, as in typical in Bergman, is exceptionally good, with Bjornstrand a standout.
- 90The New York TimesBosley CrowtherThe New York TimesBosley CrowtherThis picture is full of extraordinary thrills that flow and collide on several levels of emotion and intellect. And it swarms with sufficient melodrama of the blood-chilling, flesh-creeping sort to tingle the hide of the least brainy addict of out-right monster films.
- 90The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasIt’s haunting and beautiful at times, surprisingly playful at others, and like all great movies about magic, it has more than a few tricks up its sleeve.
- 90Time OutTime OutWidely underrated, probably because of its strong comic elements and a tour-de-force scene derived from horror movie conventions, Bergman's chilling exploration of charlatanism is in fact one of his most genuinely enjoyable films.
- 88Chicago ReaderChicago ReaderSet in the 19th century, it's one of Bergman's most tightly structured and frightening films.
- 88Chicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonChicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonPerhaps Bergman's most typical variation on one of his major themes: the clash between raffish theatrical artists and sober rulers. [10 Dec 2005, p.C4]
- 75Slant MagazineJoseph Jon LanthierSlant MagazineJoseph Jon LanthierThis piquant control over cinematic grammar doesn’t quite rescue the film from a laughably zombie-tinged climax and an anomalous deus ex machina denouement, but it makes The Magician one of Bergman’s more accessible failures, and collapses any suspicious connection between him and the fretful Vogler.
- 70The New YorkerPauline KaelThe New YorkerPauline KaelThis Ingmar Bergman film isn't a masterwork, or even a very good movie, but it is clearly a film made by a master.