... brilliantly shows how the protagonists’ equally idealistic, yet differing sense of self can lead them to be heroes and villains in the same instance...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 29, 2024

The Falcon and the Snowman is a tense, fast-paced film with fine performances by Hutton and Penn.

| Feb 10, 2023

Not exactly a fun watch, but a fascinating one for sure.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 23, 2020

It's a powerfully rich character study and a cautionary tale about jumping too far ahead if it looks too good to be true.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 20, 2020

Thank heavens these spies come in from the cold -- it's frozen their brains.

| Jan 4, 2018

It's a watchable, likely accurate recitation of facts, with two outstanding performances. But in the case of the Falcon and the Snowman, the truth we don't see onscreen may be stranger, and stronger, than the historical fiction that has been created.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 31, 2015

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 4, 2007

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 29, 2006

Hutton succumbs firstly to a thin role, and secondly to the film's lack of any strong viewpoint about its leading men. As usual Schlesinger is more than half in love with what he might be satirising.

| Jan 26, 2006

Though Penn and Hutton perform admirably, the film fails to be interesting.

| Original Score: C+ | Dec 5, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 29, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 19, 2005

It is not a thriller in any routine sense of the word. It's just the meticulously observant record of how naivet, inexperience, misplaced idealism and greed led to one of the most peculiar cases of treason in American history.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 23, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 10, 2004

A very curious though effective entertainment, a scathing social satire in the form of an outrageously clumsy spy story told with a completely straight face.

| Aug 30, 2004

An exercise in vagueness.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 21, 2004

intriguing but a bit dry

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 19, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 10, 2004

A smart, nuanced spy thriller that's all about the gray areas.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 2, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 21, 2003