Devil In A Blue Dress Critic Reviews

It's the film's glowing visual qualities, a striking performance by Denzel Washington and the elegant control Carl Franklin has over it all that create the most exotic crime entertainment of the season.Read the full review

Writer and director Carl Franklin ("One False Move") scores a triumph in using the brooding atmosphere and racial tension of the sun-kissed, seedy City of Angels to reveal character and reclaim a neglected past that ace cinematographer Tak Fujimoto brings to vivid life.Read the full review

Few films are more assured in their storytelling or build more forcefully, irrevocably toward their resolution.Read the full review

In the process of drawing audiences into the twists and turns of a knotty detective tale, Mr. Franklin and his cinematographer, Tak Fujimoto, open up an enticing and languorous lost world.Read the full review

Franklin's picture is effortlessly wise beneath its entertaining surface.Read the full review

The movie is entertaining on its own terms, and Washington's warmth at the center of it is like our own bemusement, as together we return to the shadows of noir.Read the full review

Washington, no surprise, is terrific, his sensitivity offset with touches of knowing, self-deprecating humor.Read the full review

Easy isn't much of an acting challenge, but Washington's mix of charm and intensity creates an appealing personae.Read the full review

On its own terms, the plotting of "Devil" is absorbing, and the pieces actually fit together pretty decently. On the other hand, when scenes directly call to mind similar ones in "Chinatown," this effort's stepchild relationship to the classic is forcibly demonstrated.Read the full review