It gets by on evil ambience. Just.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 29, 2017

No one who sees Shortland's movie will be minded to inflict it on their friends, or much thanked if they do.

| Jun 15, 2017

Slick, but disappointing.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 9, 2017

While there are a few plot holes, Palmer and Riemelt sustain the tense arthouse thriller.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 8, 2017

Its mundane detailing - trite domestic purgatory along with the hellish psychological torment - erodes grand guignol in favour of a stoical acceptance perhaps even deadlier.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 8, 2017

An intelligent tale with unusual undertones and a necessary fear factor.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 6, 2017

The final showdown left me in a cold sweat.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 5, 2017

A thoughtful chamber piece and great white knuckle thriller, Berlin Syndrome confirms Cate Shortland as a distinctive, cherishable talent in her most accessible movie to date.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 5, 2017

[Shortland] is expert and building a sense of dread and suspense while Palmer delivers a persuasive performance as a woman who has to summon the strength that she didn't know she had in order to escape.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 31, 2017

A thriller whose genre moves are as precise as its underlying swirl of emotions are enigmatic.

| May 26, 2017

Australian director Cate Shortland creates a dreamlike sense of place within a nightmare scenario with this taut and strongly acted thriller.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 26, 2017

A nasty piece of business tarted up with a stylish, high-gloss veneer.

| Original Score: C | May 26, 2017

The movie identifies Ms. Shortland as a talent to watch. And it should constitute some kind of breakthrough for Ms. Palmer, who has not been given much of interest to do since she arrived in Hollywood a little over a decade ago.

| May 25, 2017

Berlin Syndrome might look on the surface like a polished B-movie, a crafty and violent tale of a woman in captivity; but it's also the rare psychological thriller that feels not just taut and gripping, but genuinely exploratory.

| May 25, 2017

We start to feel like we're drowning in atmosphere, and it gets harder and harder to stay interested in what happens next.

| May 25, 2017

Telling the story of a psychopath and his sex-slave, the film balances the clinical and visceral.

| May 25, 2017

Shortland's mise-en-scne, full of close-ups of bruised limbs and peeling paint, effectively enhances the grim realism of the scenario.

| Original Score: B- | May 25, 2017

Until its hasty climax, the film is rewardingly patient and psychologically cogent.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 22, 2017

Unfortunately, at about the midway point the film loses steam and then drags on for almost two hours, far more than the material can stand.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 21, 2017

An ambitious project, for sure - but also uneven, drawn-out and repetitive.

| Apr 19, 2017