Goldberger and Giamatti strain too hard for strangeness.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 4, 2007

These strengths seldom mesh persuasively.

| May 4, 2007

Never takes flight.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 7, 2007

The Hawk Is Dying is a fragile little movie, occasionally ridiculous, but with M. Night Shyamalan's Lady In The Water, Giamatti proved that he can make even the weirdest material believable.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Apr 5, 2007

Imagine an entire film infected with hangdog sensibility, unrelieved by humor or narrative interest, and you have The Hawk Is Dying.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 2, 2007

For performing half this film with a predatory bird perched and flapping angrily on his arm, Paul Giamatti deserves some sort of award.

| Original Score: 2/6 | Mar 31, 2007

Ultimately, this inscrutable film is just an exercise in self-indulgence.

| Mar 31, 2007

Giamatti delivers yet another superb performance, turning what might have been a freak show into an unexpectedly moving experience.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 30, 2007

Isn't anywhere close to perfect, but giving yourself over to its performances is wonderfully rewarding.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 30, 2007

Not an easy movie to watch, and it's far from perfect -- but it does have an artsy integrity and a fascinatingly intense performance by Paul Giamatti.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 30, 2007

Goldberger's stubbornly insular script might have fared better on stage, where the story would feel more contained than suffocating.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Mar 30, 2007

There's enough worthwhile labor expended, especially by the powerful cast, to make Hawk Is Dying difficult to dismiss, even when it's hard to take.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 29, 2007

I'd rather watch Goldberger fail than a hundred others succeed.

| Mar 27, 2007

Resonant but angst-ridden, it's a subtle, strangely spiritual human drama that unfolds slowly, very slowly.

| Original Score: 4/10 | Mar 23, 2007

The principal human character warns more than once, "Don't look at The Hawk." That's good advice, film fans.

| Original Score: C- | Mar 19, 2007

It's awfully hard to review a movie called The Hawk is Dying without avoiding bird synonyms and metaphors.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Mar 17, 2007

It's not exactly a one-man and a bird show, but it's as close as we're going to get.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 22, 2006

Goldberger's study of a troubled man's obsession with falconry is admittedly flawed and Giamatti's acting is self-indulgent, yet there's something truly independent about this film which now gets a second chance to be seen at the Cannes Film Festival.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 10, 2006

Giamatti, as always, is great. He brings George to life, which isn't all that difficult for one of the few dumpy, balding actors getting leading man roles in Hollywood.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Feb 17, 2006

Loaded with obtuse symbolism, the film is not only hard to understand, it isn't much fun trying to figure it out.

Full Review | Jan 26, 2006