Synopsis
In 1894, French Captain Alfred Dreyfus is wrongfully convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Devil's Island penal colony.
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Cast
- Jean DujardinPicquart
- Louis GarrelAlfred Dreyfus
- Emmanuelle SeignerPauline Monnier
- Grégory GadeboisHenry
- Hervé PierreGeneral Gonse
- Wladimir YordanoffGeneral Mercier
- Didier SandreGeneral Boisdeffre
- Melvil PoupaudMaître Labori
- Eric RufSandherr
- Mathieu AmalricBertillon
- 80
The Guardian
It’s a solid, well-crafted piece of professional carpentry, like a heavy piece of Victorian furniture; built to last; built to be used. The longer you look at it, the more impressive it grows. - 70
Screen Daily
Jean Dujardin is quietly excellent as the French officer whose growing conviction that Alfred Dreyfus (Louis Garrel) is innocent of treason puts him on a collision course with his superiors. The Oscar-winning actor provides the film with its soulful centre, despite the familiarity of the material and its procedural tone. - 60
The Hollywood Reporter
One couldn’t wish for a more painstakingly researched or beautifully rendered account of the infamous Dreyfus affair than Roman Polanski’s An Officer and a Spy (J’Accuse).... Yet the result is oddly lacking in heart and soul, almost as though a mask of military discipline held it in check. - 60
CineVue
The film itself is utterly uncontroversial, solid, occasionally stolid, and perfectly fine. - 60
The Telegraph
This is a sober, stiff-collared procedural, handsomely shot but also oddly bloodless until the more conventional paranoid-thriller rhythms of its final act kick in. - 55
TheWrap
Any controversy that might erupt over Roman Polanski’s decision to implicitly equate himself with one of history’s greatest victims of injustice is dissipated by the resultant film’s tepid listlessness. - 50
Variety
An Officer and a Spy has a this-happened-and-then-this-happened quality. And that’s why the movie, beneath the two-dimensional jauntiness of its acting and the period vividness of its sets and costumes, feels more dutiful than riveting. - 50
The Playlist
It’s a middling historical drama, finely crafted and ever so slightly stodgy in spite of a compelling last act.