Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus Critic Reviews

Purists will howl at the liberties Shainberg has taken with the facts, but there's a bravery to Fur, an uncompromising commitment to its narrow focus -- of one woman's creative birth -- that rhymes with Arbus's own artistic courage.Read the full review

Yet whenever you get too irritated at Fur's pretensions, the remarkable acting of its two stars pulls you back in and keeps you watching.Read the full review

Fur is that rare movie that's TOO understated, so quiet and deliberate that it effectively buries consuming passions.Read the full review

This is a Beauty & the Beast romance between Nicole Kidman and Chewbacca.Read the full review

Picture is impressively crafted and acted but far too narrowly and benignly conceived to satisfy even on its own terms.Read the full review

Though sometimes boldly captivating, the movie is also occasionally pretentious and lurid simply for shock value.Read the full review

Downey makes something lively, sexy and moving out of a role that's just a thin concept. But the movie feels like it's still in the darkroom.Read the full review

In theory, there's nothing wrong with this unorthodox approach to Arbus -- attempting to explain her from the inside out. (In its way, Harmony Korine's freakfest "Gummo" is a better Arbus movie.) The trouble is that Shainberg and Wilson don't connect their conceit to anything artistically enlightening, erotic, or truly deviant.Read the full review

Fur is a misfire by the talented people who four years ago gave us "Secretary," whose tongue-in-cheek approach might have served this film better, taking the edge off much of its pretensions.Read the full review