The Center of the World Critic Reviews

If you understand who the characters are and what they're supposed to represent, the performances are right on the money.Read the full review

A fairly sexy, serious-minded drama hobbled by its lack of real conceptual ambition.Read the full review

Wang is working on your mind, not your body.Read the full review

Provoke us into examining whether the onus is on the man for turning it into a commercial proposition or the woman for agreeing to his offer.Read the full review

Too arty by half.Read the full review

One pities poor Molly Parker, a fine actress who was somehow persuaded to disrobe for this degrading and dispiriting Wayne Wang film.Read the full review

In a culture apparently defined by lap dancing, ersatz architectural sublimity and the virtual contact of cyberspace, how do we know what is real? The Center of the World, for example, is as phony as can be.Read the full review

All this sadness becomes so depressing to watch, testing the limits of the patience of even a viewer prepared to take Wang's underlying concerns seriously.Read the full review