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

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 dramatically compelling as it is heavily metaphorical...

| 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

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

...compelling, great-looking...

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

[A] pleasant romantic drama.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000