21
Metascore
9 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 50The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeA curiosity telling the President's story through the eyes of longtime friend Ward Hill Lamon, it's of interest only to serious history-hounds and techies curious about its unusual green-screen production.
- 50New York PostLou LumenickNew York PostLou LumenickOdd and not entirely uninteresting little docudrama.
- 40VarietyBill EdelsteinVarietyBill EdelsteinThe script, while largely historically accurate, is undermined by stilted dialogue, and the picture is laced with ill-fitting parts that wind up literally all over the matte. The result is a film better suited to classrooms than theaters.
- 40The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerThe New York TimesNeil GenzlingerThe whole affair has an artificial look reminiscent of a community theater production on a cardboard set. The vintage images don’t add enough to make up for the visual distraction. The story, though, is of moderate interest.
- 38Slant MagazineSlant MagazineUnder even the best of circumstances, Saving Lincoln would have to inevitably face the scrutiny of potential redundancy.
- 20New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNew York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierThe movie’s gimmick is having the actors visually superimposed over sets created from actual Civil War photographs. But this collage effect, while striving for truthfulness, comes off like a View-Master version of a tale already told.
- Saving Lincoln feels amateurish, strange and beyond redress.
- 0Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlVillage VoiceAlan ScherstuhlThe tragic ending the material demands precludes viewers from complaining that the movie is the most unpleasant thing that could happen in a theater.
- 0The PlaylistGabe ToroThe PlaylistGabe ToroAt its worst, the film is a panoply of ersatz camera placement and terrible scene blocking, actors having no clue how to interact with their surroundings as they rifle through dialogue that stands as a series of historical checkpoints rather than a cohesive story.