| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 6, 2005

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

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 25, 2003

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 8, 2002

It's a superb film in the classic style of screen storytelling, at once intimate and epic, possessed of lyrical beauty and suffused with that mixture of warmth, suffering and rueful humor so characteristic of Russian films.

| Feb 14, 2001

[Stealing] the show is the eight-year-old Philipchuk, whose wide eyes register awe, puzzlement and misery with a conviction not seen since Salvatore Cascio in Cinema Paradiso.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2000

It is clear fairly early in The Thief that the title character represents Stalin, and it's one of the strengths of the film that the symbolism never gets in the way of a convincing, heartbreaking story.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

As mentioned, the payoff to this isn't exactly surprising, but the scenes that precede it are very good, thanks to Chukhrai's suspenseful plotting and convincing dialogue, as well as the terrific cast.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

...The Thief is also a reminder of just how exhilarating and satisfying a good tragedy can be...

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 1, 2000

...every bit as brilliant as its reputation suggests and is the feel-bad movie of the month, to boot.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

As dramatically compelling as it is heavily metaphorical...

| Jan 1, 2000

The powerful persona that is evoked by Mashkov, a Russian stage actor and romantic star of cinema, makes the melodramatics more convincing.

| Original Score: C | Jan 1, 2000

The Thief is a beautiful movie about terrible things that happen to a widow and her young son.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

There is more to this picture than just an affecting story; for those who care to look, there's plenty of symbolism.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Beautifully photographed by Vladimir Klimov and utilizing Victor Petrov's strikingly authentic set to resemble a railway car of the 1950s, The Thief provides us with a broad sweep of Russian everymen as well as its principal performers.

| Jan 1, 2000

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 1, 2000

The film falls short as a romance, however, never achieving the depths for which writer-director Chukhrai clearly strives.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 1, 2000

The Thief is one in a long line of competent Eastern European movies that evoke the hardships of the Second World War II effectively but not exactly inspiringly.

| Jan 1, 2000

The Thief, Russian director Pavel Chukhrai's new film, is both a simple story simply told and an uneasy political fable.

| Jan 1, 2000

Philipchuk is absolutely endearing as the young Sonya, and Mashkov is powerful as the duplicitous con.

| Original Score: B | Jan 1, 2000