Frankly, it's a film that, despite its noble intentions, I find clumsy and exhausting in its indulgent tragedy about the decline of a stage actor, played by Chaplin as a fictional version of himself. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 5/10 | Oct 4, 2024

A creative cinematic imagination gone to seed.

| Jan 18, 2024

A movie of impressive dimensions and great technical skill that serves up a tidbit of pathos as though it were a feast of tragedy.

| Sep 29, 2023

The Chaplin of Limelight is no irreverent little clown; his reverence for his own ideas would be astonishing even if the ideas were worth consideration.

| Sep 29, 2023

“Limelight” is much more than a late-career masterpiece from the pioneer of the movies, it’s a beautiful exercise of cinematic self-therapy.

| Sep 23, 2022

This man of sixty-four is still in the vanguard of the cinema. At one stroke, [Chaplin] has forged ahead of everyone else; more than ever, he remains an example and a symbol of creative freedom in the least free of the arts.

| Dec 8, 2021

Throughout, Chaplin's comedy-drama doesn't produce one belly laugh, but hardly a gesture in it Jacks grace, point, or perfection.

| Nov 25, 2020

Limelight plays like a very personal, sincere work from an artist who seems to have accepted the inevitability of changing times and tastes. Sweet, sad, and often amusing, it's the Tramp's last great appearance on film.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 27, 2020

Chaplin might not be "the tramp" character from before (in the strictest sense), but his aging clown definitely retains some familiar characteristics.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 23, 2020

To me it seems one of the finest things Chaplin has ever done. Not even an occasional draggy or garrulous episode can detract seriously from the incomparable grace and wit and humanity which abound in this picture...

| Oct 7, 2019

Limelight is loaded with excellent song and dance numbers that remind us that life may be tough, but there is no reason to get mired in it.

| Jun 26, 2019

With Limelight, for one last, brief moment, it's like old times even as the new age begins and Chaplin relinquishes his crown to the younger generations.

| Apr 11, 2017

It was Chaplin's last great film, and it showcases not just a love for the performing arts (she's a ballerina, he's a vaudevillian), but also Chaplin's effortless sentimentality.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 13, 2015

This somewhat autobiographical piece goes heavy on the melodrama and employs humor in short bursts.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 11, 2015

Some have also accused Limelight of being too sentimental, but we'd argue that's part of its charm.

| Original Score: 7/10 | May 21, 2015

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 14, 2011

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 23, 2011

What comes through most clearly in Limelight, however, is that Chaplin had come to terms with his life.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 8, 2011

Chaplin, as usual, is the whole show, superb in this swansong statement about his own career and the old-style entertainment he best represented.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 8, 2011

Intended as a tragicomedy, if not a tearjerker, it is a two-thirds bore that comes to life in the last half-hour or so, when the old-master clown stops trying to be pathetic and reverts to his inimitable proper stuff.

| Aug 8, 2011