Lancaster uses his big, strong body so expressively that if this were a stage performance the audience would probably give him a standing ovation. I don’t see how he could be any better.

| Sep 12, 2023

Lancaster was never more moving onscreen than when he was lying to himself, and there are shades of his shattering performance as John Cheever’s 'The Swimmer' in Lou’s tall tales of his glory days.

| Jul 16, 2022

Atlantic City is a rough and tender film, a dreamer's film, and beautifully made. A small film that plays for high stakes and ends with the wheel still rolling.

| Dec 29, 2021

The bleak cinematography and subtle score give Atlantic City a hypnotic quality and it obviously inspired Bruce Springsteen's track of the same name from his Nebraska album - in fact lines from the song are "borrowed" from Guare's screenplay.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 24, 2021

Louis Malle's graceful, heartrending look at love and loss on the boardwalk remains as vibrant as ever four decades on.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 5, 2021

Atlantic City references the action genre only to dismantle it from the inside... With feeling and exuberance, Louis Malle constructs a spectacle. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Aug 19, 2019

It combines French discipline and nonchalance with an American generosity and high spirits. The dialogue is precise and often witty, qualities it shares with the acting.

| Mar 29, 2018

It abounds in heroics, glories in coincidence, indulges in sentiment, laughs at Cupid's bizarre sense of humor and provides sumptuous parts for the five leading players, who know how to seize their opportunities.

| Feb 5, 2018

"Atlantic City" is full of compact social editorializing that elevates its seemingly run-of-the-mill trappings into something sublime by way of its emotionally dependent characters.

| Original Score: A+ | Jul 1, 2014

[Sarandon is] shirtless before she even has a name, but her desire to be ogled is granted dignity and power; gradually and unassumingly, she upstages a terrific Burt Lancaster.

| Oct 7, 2012

A shimmering success.

| Oct 7, 2012

"Atlantic City" is a sophisticated fairy tale, beautifully acted and beautiful to behold; it is as funny as it is touching.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 7, 2012

Malle pulls off a minor coup here, celebrating his wounded characters even as he mercilessly reveals their dreams for the hopeless illusions they really are.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 7, 2012

For all the flaws in the plot, the triumvurate of Malle, Lancaster and Sarandon give this moody little thriller a seductive, lingering power.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 7, 2012

A well observed and deeply tender tale.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 7, 2012

Film is blessed with a spare, intriguing script by Yank John Guare, which always skirts impending cliches and predictability by finding unusual facets in his characters and their actions.

| Mar 26, 2009

Eclectic, pacy and hard to categorise, it's part crime thriller, part love story, part fairytale, and part a gentle, generous examination of certain dying aspects of American culture.

| Feb 9, 2006

This lyrical tale set in Atlantic City in times of change is full of offbeat characters. It is evocatively directed by Louis Malle in his second (and better) American film and well acted by Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon as the odd romantic couple.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 31, 2006

What makes "Atlantic City" sweet -- and that's the word for it -- is the gentleness with which Lou handles his last chance at amounting to something, and the wisdom with which Sally handles Lou.

| Jan 20, 2006

Intriguing from beginning to end.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 28, 2005