The Flat (2012)
Average Rating: 7.6/10
Reviews Counted: 31
Fresh: 26 | Rotten: 5
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 8/10
Critic Reviews: 16
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 1
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 2,766
My Rating
Movie Info
At age 98, director Goldfinger's grandmother passed away, leaving him the task of clearing out the Tel Aviv flat that she and her husband shared for decades since immigrating from Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Sifting through a dense mountain of photos, letters, files, and objects, Goldfinger begins to uncover clues that seem to point to a greater mystery and soon a complicated family history unfolds before his camera. What starts to take shape reflects nothing less than the troubled and taboo
Watch It Now
Cast
ADVERTISEMENT
All Critics (31) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (26) | Rotten (5)
There's something touching about the way Goldfinger obeys his moral compass.
Top CriticI will salute the deftness and intelligence with which Goldfinger observes the reactions of the living to the revelations of the dead.
Are things better left alone or is revealing all always the best path? "The Flat," to its credit, offers nothing like a definitive answer.
"The Flat" is a compelling tale of history made personal, and of what happens when light is shone on something previously murky.
The movie feels more like a thriller and a mystery than a documentary. Perhaps someday, someone will be inspired to dramatize this astonishing story.
Engrossing doc finds buried bonds between an Israeli family and an important Nazi.
It's a mesmerizing detective story ...with an oddly uplifting ending that suggests a commonality of the human spirit that supersedes ideology.
'The Flat' has a strange staying power that the objects in the apartment didn't.
An intriguing documentary about a man who discovers some huge surprises with major implications when he starts digging through the stuff left behind in his grandparent's apartment in Tel Aviv after his grandmother's death.
Arnon's filmmaking is flaccid, with TV-style interviews and rote reaction shots in place of cinematic imagery and deftly edited surprises.
Since there's no big payoff, the family drama documentary fizzles in the end.
Grandma's closet contains a story only the third generation can hear
An earnest and deeply personal exhumation of proverbial skeletons in the family closet, The Flat is damned by its own incuriosity.
A grim historical detective story indeed.
Once the facts have been presented, the film begins to run out of steam and one is only left to question why the filmmaker took this approach.
A film that turns a personal story into a commentary on international denial and healing after World War II.
Watching Goldfinger's curiosity be met with different answers to the same questions while his mother absorbs this new side of her own parents proves a fascinating study in family history.
An unsettling look at the generational fallout from the Holocaust.
Audience Reviews for The Flat
Super Reviewer
Discussion Forum
There are no discussion threads for The Flat yet.
Latest News on The Flat
October 19, 2012:
Critics Consensus: Paranormal Activity 4 Offers Up Stale ScaresThis week at the movies, we've got ghostly video recordings (Paranormal Activity 4, starring Katie...
What's Hot On RT
Trailer for James Franco adaptation
Star Trek is Certified Fresh
Rachel McAdams' time travel romantic drama
Trailer for Tom Hanks thriller
Featured on RT
- Weekly Ketchup: Will Smith to Star in Wild Bunch Remake? 33
- Critics Consensus: Star Trek Into Darkness is Certified Fresh 89
- Red Carpet Roundup: Star Trek Into Darkness Edition 0
- Video Interviews with Katie Aselton & Lake Bell of Black Rock 2
- VIP Access: Eli Roth talks Aftershock 1
- Total Recall: Star Trek Movies 93
- Parental Guidance: Star Trek Into Darkness 18
Top Headlines
-
J.J. Abrams Talks Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Wars, and More
0
-
Vin Diesel Says Fast & Furious 7 Will Begin a New Trilogy
7
-
Mickey Rourke Confirmed for Expendables 3
3
-
Brad Bird Still Mulling Incredibles 2
0
-
Reese Witherspoon, Jena Malone, and Martin Short Join Inherent Vice
0
-
Bruce Willis Makes an Expiration Date
2
-
Drew Pearce Hired for Mission: Impossible 5
0
Fresh Links
Featured
Star Trek Movies Ranked
HitFix offers their own take on the worst-to-best of the Enterprise crew's cinematic adventures.
Top 10 Star Trek Villains
Rolling Stone unveils the Enterprise's most irksome adversaries.
Celebrity Yearkbook Flashback
We'll bet you never realized how many stars were cheerleaders and high school athletes!
50 Most Classic Movie Moms
In celebration of Mother's Day, TimeOut offers up 50 iconic matriarchs from the big screen.
Weirdest Movie Siblings
From Twins to The Royal Tenenbaums, Moviefone explores cinema's oddest siblings.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter!
Spice up your feed with hourly Tomatometer updates!
Foreign Titles
- Die Wohnung (DE)
- The Flat (UK)
