Flawless Reviews
Outdated and schematic, this two-character melodrama belongs to the 1970s, when transsexuals were "novel" dramatic persona; even the gifted Philip Seymour Hoffman is defeated by the writing and direction.
Full Review
| Original Score: D
Time Out
Top CriticFor what it's worth, this could be Schumacher's best film.
Reeling Reviews
...a well-balance work that captures the often jaw dropping performances by the dancers.
Full Review
| Original Score: C+
Its weary clichés and flat comic bits are apparently supposed to be fresh and insightful.
Film Threat
What's worse than a film directed by Joel Schumacher? How about a film written and directed by Joel Schumacher?
Full Review
| Original Score: 0.5/5
Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)
De Niro and Hoffman deliver the goods, but they are lost within a cockamamie, violent subplot that pulls down everything.
Full Review | Original Score: 1/4
Kalamazoo Gazette
a piece of junk jewelry even Robert DeNiro and Philip Seymour Hoffman can't make sparkle. Heaven knows they try, though.
Boxoffice Magazine
Hoffman, who until now has played supporting roles in films such as "Boogie Nights" and "Happiness," proves a powerful peer for his macho co-star, even in stiletto heels.
culturevulture.net
Joel Schumacher has served up a big, steamy Butterball with all the trimmings.
BBC
The involvement of several real-life drag queens contributes to both the exhuberence, authenticity, and sheer panache to mark something of a return to form for the idiosyncratic director.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Sight and Sound
Flawless is a fractured picture, which is its most winning aspect.
Filmcritic.com
Oh. My. God. Who came up with the idea for this piece of junk?
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/5
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
There's a nice moment or two, and the two central performances are OK, but it's grindingly predictable, and, for all its good intentions and celebration of diversity, it finally just rings false as a human drama.
Full Review
| Original Score: C+
Matinee Magazine
Proves that neither a respected great like Robert De Niro or an up-and-comer like Philip Seymour Hoffman can save a film as foolish and misguided as this one.
Full Review
| Original Score: C-
TheMovieReport.com
Joel Schumacher has set himself up for the easy critical jab, so allow me to get it out of the way right here, right now: Flawless is anything but.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
San Francisco Examiner
Seedy, grimy and unsightly as hell, even as it aspires to find the inner diva in us all, "Flawless" is what happens when a filmmaker has no sense of naturalism, no sense of realism and no real natural sense.
Film Journal International
Schumacher sets gay screen images back about three decades with this noisy inanity.
Apollo Guide
While De Niro shows his usual skill, he takes a back seat to Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who presents a stunning performance.
Full Review
| Original Score: 74/100
"Flawless" is contrived and overly schematic, but De Niro and Hoffman are such good actors that it never slips into pat sentiment.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
SPLICEDWire
"Flawless" could have been a quality character piece if only writer-director Schumacher had written deeper characters or exercised even a modicum of self-restraint.
Full Review
| Original Score: 6/10
