Its trickery might seem cute or clever to viewers who don't take either movies or people very seriously, but to me it recalled cynical "puzzle" films like Memento and Irreversible, with no reason to exist apart from its gimmick.

| Feb 5, 2018

As much as it tries to be a smart, postmodern indie film, dot the i is pure Hollywood fluff.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 18, 2005

So in love with its own inventions and convolutions that it ignores all plausibility and audience acceptance.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 25, 2005

Parkhill tries to keep new blood pulsing through the film, but the movie stalls by its third act, where he plays a trick that seems more desperate than fresh.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 10, 2005

Take a long, hard look at Parkhill's film, and you'll find too many i's undotted.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 20, 2005

While stylishly done, Parkhill's script isn't nearly as clever as he thinks it is, and the sucker punch near the end lacks, well, punch.

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Apr 28, 2005

It plays like the last paragraph of one of those Encyclopedia Brown stories, where the solution is an unknown twin brother or the wrong-sized footprint.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 15, 2005

The movie not only scatters undotted Is and uncrossed Ts in its wake, but unsquared circles, unfactored primes, unrisen souffles and unconsummated consummations.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 14, 2005

Let me know if you figure it out.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 14, 2005

If Dot the i, the directorial debut of Matthew Parkhill (who also wrote the screenplay), has a crass visual flash, it fails to give its characters any credible substance.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Apr 1, 2005

It's a hugely entertaining thriller disguised as a chick flick.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 1, 2005

Far too clever for his own good, Parkhill has fashioned a Chinese box of a story where the first twist sets up a second, that one sets up a third, and so on.

Full Review | Apr 1, 2005

Begins as a romantic comedy, turns into romantic thriller, then collapses into a sick and illogical self-reflexive noir. If this sounds even vaguely exciting, I promise it's not.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Apr 1, 2005

Like the fire trucks that can't quite reach the burning building, there are a lot of good ideas racing toward Dot the I, and ... they ... can't ... quite ... get ... there. Besides, the movie is intent on self-immolation.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 31, 2005

Leaves too many t's double-crossed.

| Original Score: C- | Mar 30, 2005

Parkhill, far too eager to wow them in the end, has crafted a twist-is-everything scenario, evincing a sub-Mamet level of concern for plot holes or audience satisfaction.

Full Review | Mar 29, 2005

It eventually crosses that elusive line into absurdity, rendering meaningless, in retrospect, most of everything that went before.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 25, 2005

Implausibility and banality join forces to turn dot the i into the kind of pretentious, pseudo-clever claptrap that most wanna-be directors get out of their system during film school.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Mar 25, 2005

Gael Garcia Bernal I think is really becoming a major force as a leading man. He's very good.

Full Review | Mar 21, 2005

A gimmicky first-time feature that bears all the unfortunate earmarks of an ambitious but empty directorial vision.

| Mar 18, 2005