It’s a really interesting telling of this story that shows the way people can find inspiration in odd places, with an ending that leaves behind some intriguing questions about the type of relationship they have.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 11, 2025

The Painter and the Thief is a rare example of real-life experience with all the ups and downs, emotional highs and lows, and unexpected plot twists of the most manipulative of fictional narratives.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 25, 2023

The Painter and the Thief captures moments of love, redemption, hope, and ultimately, the exultant power of forgiveness.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 1, 2022

A depiction of raw honesty...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 17, 2022

A story of forgiveness over judgement, The Painter and The Thief is a satisfying journey capped by a surprising turn of events in the final moments. It demands that you look at familiar subjects in a different way, and comes away all the richer for it.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 26, 2022

Genre-mixing, and not just boundary-blurring, has finally come to documentaries.

| Oct 5, 2021

To be seen, to be heard, to be accepted - isn't that all anyone really wants?

| Sep 2, 2021

If this were a fiction film it would surely be dismissed as totally unbelievable; since it's not, this portrait of two totally fascinating characters proves to be as riveting as any thriller.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 3, 2021

Fascinating, thoughtful, moving and astonishing... unfurls a tale so layered and wild that it can only be true.

| Mar 28, 2021

The Painter and the Thief is a superb Norwegian documentary about a painter who befriended the criminal who stole two of her paintings. He then became her muse.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 25, 2021

An almost uncomfortably intimate portrait of the strange vagaries of human need ... Like Kysilkova's paintings, The Painter and the Thief is photo-realistic but artfully constructed for maximum pathos, darkness and surprise.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 21, 2021

The film can't make the case that the story, while unusual, is inherently interesting. Odd couples have existed since time immemorial, and Ree never illuminates these two people enough to make their stories worthy of a documentary.

| Feb 8, 2021

A true-crime tale reconfigured into a unique relationship saga, replete with twists, turns, heartbreak, failure and redemption that's as surprising as it is well-earned.

| Feb 2, 2021

A story full of twists... as orthodox in its forms as it is exciting. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 1, 2021

This is a fascinating documentary film that is chock full of surprises.

| Original Score: A | Jan 8, 2021

[An] astonishing and completely unexpected documentary.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 22, 2020

Playing out as a fascinating dramatic narrative, this documentary unfolds its story using found footage, surveillance cameras and remarkably intimate fly-on-the-wall sequences.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 6, 2020

The Painter and the Thief has more human interest, more narrative urgency, than most feature films.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 2, 2020

Benjamin Ree's extraordinary documentary feels like a movie - there's a heist, villains who are not what they seem, scenes of striking intimacy and some fabulous twists.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 2, 2020

Fascinating, confounding and continually surprising...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 1, 2020