Lincoln (2012)

All Critics (245) | Top Critics (48) | Fresh (218) | Rotten (27) | DVD (4)

It's very good, but that's not the point. It's necessary.

June 14, 2013 Full Review

David Thomson

The New Republic

Top Critic

'Lincoln' works as a snapshot of a great man without ever slipping into a portrait of sainthood.

January 22, 2013 Full Review

Dave Calhoun

Time Out

Top Critic

This is movie magic -- history coming to life, before our eyes.

January 8, 2013 Full Review

Moira MacDonald

Seattle Times

Top Critic

It's the most remarkable movie Steven Spielberg has made in quite a spell, and one of the things that makes it remarkable is how it fulfills those expectations by simultaneously ignoring and transcending them.

November 19, 2012 Full Review

Glenn Kenny

MSN Movies

Top Critic

Lincoln paints a powerful and compelling portrait of the man who has become an icon. We don't need to see more of his life to understand how rare a figure he was - this window is more than sufficient.

November 18, 2012 Full Review

James Berardinelli

ReelViews

Top Critic

Lincoln offers proof of what magic can happen when an actor falls in love with his character. Because as great as Day-Lewis has been in his many parts, he has never seemed quite so smitten.

November 16, 2012 Full Review

Lisa Kennedy

Denver Post

Top Critic

Spielberg and Kushner lend the House scenes so much vigor that "Lincoln" comes fully alive for about half an hour. Then Spielberg tacks on three addenda, and thus dissipates the good will that has developed on both sides of the movie-theater aisle.

May 28, 2013 Full Review

Carla Meyer

Sacramento Bee

Spielberg's 'Lincoln' burns itself into your memory like no other film about American politics.

May 13, 2013 Full Review

Al Alexander

The Patriot Ledger

A bit like watching the West Wing played by Amish People. Desperately needed 40 minutes cut out of what is essentially quite a beautifully made movie.

April 8, 2013 Full Review

Marc Fennell

Triple J

Day-Lewis...wears well the weariness of the office and Lincoln's puckish yet subdued sense of humor, scaling the man closer to life-size than Mount Rushmore monumental. [Blu-ray]

April 2, 2013 Full Review

Peter Canavese

Groucho Reviews

Spielberg's 'Lincoln' gives us the fullest portrait of the man on the five dollar bill that Hollywood has produced.

March 24, 2013 Full Review

James Plath

Movie Metropolis

Pushing this film as merely 'Lincoln' is something of an injustice to the man himself, as if audiences wouldn't have any interest in the actual story of the film.

March 23, 2013 Full Review

Kevin A. Ranson

MovieCrypt.com

Somewhere in there, Lincoln will call upon [his administration's] faculties and better sense, and the film about him will ask something similar of us.

March 18, 2013 Full Review

Sara Maria Vizcarrondo

Movies With Butter

A spellbinding performance and a beautifully nuanced film about statesmanship, quiet contemplation and - above all else - principle.

March 3, 2013 Full Review

Tom Glasson

Concrete Playground

Once you settle in, this is an educational and enlightening epic. Yes, it can be ponderous, but for the most part, Lincoln is entertaining.

February 28, 2013 Full Review

Matt Neal

The Standard

A powerful and brilliant look at the most important moment in US history...

February 23, 2013 Full Review

Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

Oddly, Spielberg chooses to set his gabby epic largely indoors...This gives Lincoln a rather inert feel...It's infuriating that spectacular battle scenes are described in the film, but not shown.

February 15, 2013 Full Review

Jim Schembri

3AW

A remarkable performance by Daniel Day-Lewis is the glue that holds Lincoln together. Without him, this would be a very unremarkable film.

February 11, 2013 Full Review

Tim Martain

The Mercury

Spielberg's guarded representation of Honest Abe highlights some problems with the biopic format, especially in terms of veracity, and especially in terms of how we can (or can't) measure accuracy as the years roll by.

February 7, 2013 Full Review

Luke Buckmaster

Crikey

Every ounce of time-honoured respect a nation has seen fit to bestow upon The Great Emancipator is addressed frame by frame in Steven Spielberg's stately masterwork, Lincoln.

February 7, 2013 Full Review

Simon Foster

Screen-Space

For the most part Lincoln is not a significant inclusion into Spielberg's filmography despite the noblest of intentions and undeniable cinematic craftsmanship.

February 6, 2013 Full Review

Thomas Caldwell

Cinema Autopsy

A focused, remarkably human production, anchored by Day-Lewis' understated performance as the softly spoken, long winded, devilishly funny Abraham

February 5, 2013 Full Review

Simon Miraudo

Quickflix

Those interested in the subject matter should find it informative, eye-opening and rewarding.

February 5, 2013 Full Review

Matthew Toomey

ABC Radio Brisbane

Lincoln is a far more reckless, entertaining, unusual, but ultimately horribly uneven film than its pedigree may suggest.

February 3, 2013 Full Review

Erin Free

FILMINK (Australia)

This is easily Spielberg's best picture since Schindler's List. Having a two-term black president now in the White House can't hurt its chances, either.

February 3, 2013 Full Review

Ed Gibbs

The Sunday Age

• 1. Abraham Lincoln: The fate of human decency is in our hands!
  – Submitted by Alexandria P (49 days ago)
• 1. Thaddeus Stevens: Trust? Gentlemen, you seem to have forgotten that our chosen career is politics.
  – Submitted by Ahmed A (56 days ago)
• 1. Thaddeus Stevens: Trust? Gentlemen, you seem to have forgotten that our chosen career is politics.
  – Submitted by Caesar M (3 months ago)
• 1. Abraham Lincoln: Euclid's first common notion is this: "Things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other."
  – Submitted by Mahesh W (3 months ago)
• 1. Abraham Lincoln: You're an engineer. You must know Euclid's axioms and common notions. I never had much of schooling but I read Euclid in an old book I borrowed. Little ever found in its way in here, but once learnt it stayed learnt.
  – Submitted by Mahesh W (3 months ago)
• 1. Edwin Stanton: A compass, I learnt when I was surveying, it'll... it'll point you True North from where you're standing, but it's got no advice about the swamps and deserts and chasms that you'll encounter along the way. If in pursuit of your destination, you plunge ahead, heedless of obstacles, and achieve nothing more than to sink in a swamp... What's the use of knowing True North?
  – Submitted by M'hamed D (4 months ago)