Prima Facie: reviews

What the critics say average 5.6 from 20 outlets

• 8.0 ColliderTherese Lacson While White's film is not exactly groundbreaking, her thoughtful approach and execution still make it well worth the watch and the praise. Read
• 8.0 Loud and Clear ReviewsClotilde Chinnici Overall, Prima Facie is an incredibly urgent and important movie. Read
• 8.0 City A.M.Adam Bloodworth Like the West End show, this Prima Facie finds a compelling and totally shocking human story amid a legal system that seems to have forgotten about the victims. Read
• 7.5 AwardsWatchDaniel Bayer Despite the film’s generic stylings, Cynthia Erivo’s shattering performance shines through, offering a vital light to survivors of assault everywhere. Read
• 7.0 The WrapWilliam Bibbiani White’s film is no less devastating for its changes, but they do simplify some of the material’s complexities. The play treats the audience like a jury; the film treats us like a witness. Read
• 6.0 Screen RantGeorge Bate As a legal drama, the movie is solid; as a cinematic rallying cry to radically reinvent norms, laws, and comprehension of sexual violence, it is exceptionally effective. Read
• 6.0 Time OutBarry Levitt Prima Facie relies heavily on Erivo’s charismatic performance and the Londoner is brilliant as this complicated character, effectively conveying the thrill of having power and then the trauma of losing it entirely. Read
• 6.0 Next Best PictureJ. Don Birnam The film mistakes the righteousness of its argument for the persuasiveness of its drama. Its message is urgent, its lead performance is memorable, and yet the movie around both is too ungainly, too obvious, and too strained to earn the power it plainly wants. Read
• 6.0 Radio TimesJames Mottram Erivo is a highly competent actress and handles the emotional scenes with real skill, but even she can’t save the inauthentic dialogue in the first act, when she and her colleagues are out dancing and drinking. Read
• 6.0 Evening StandardSeb Stentiford Led by a phenomenal performance by Cynthia Erivo as the brilliant criminal defence barrister, Tessa Ensler, Susanna White’s Prima Facie is a well-crafted court-room drama that isn’t covert in exposing weaknesses in the British legal system. Read
• 5.0 VultureAlison Willmore White does as much as she can to make Prima Facie cinematic, but she’s not an inherently inventive filmmaker. Both she and Erivo ultimately run up against the limitations of the material, which ultimately treats Tessa not as a person but as a vehicle for certain themes. Read
• 5.0 The PlaylistGregory Ellwood As you’d expect, Erivo is game and committed. She is very, very good. (...) But she doesn’t necessarily elevate the material either (nor should she have to). Read
• 5.0 DeadlinePete Hammond The list of reforms to the legal system sparked in part by Miller’s play is impressive, but I can’t help but think in this more literal film version something may have gotten lost in translation. Read
• 4.2 IndiewireBeandrea July By retaining too much of the play’s rhetorical architecture, the film turns a provocative dramatic premise into something closer to an illustrated thesis. Read
• 4.2 InSession FilmAdam Courtliff If Prima Facie sparks conversations around how sexual assault cases are handled and encourages meaningful change, its impact could extend far beyond its shortcomings as a movie. Read
• 4.0 The Hollywood ReporterCaryn James As a message, Prima Facie is still a howl of rage and a plea for change. But as a film it is a near-total muddle, from the clunky recurring voiceover to the cringey, obvious visuals and a preachy ending, with only some stunning supporting performances and a brief, powerful middle section to redeem it. Read
• 4.0 Screen DailyRobert Daniels The social justice courtroom drama from director Susanna White is an underwhelmingly flat message picture, whose efforts to raise awareness about sexual assault against women is stymied by on-the-nose creative choices and writerly missteps. Read
• 4.0 The TelegraphTim Robey What worked well enough as a stage monologue is musty and stumped as a piece of cinema. Read
• 4.0 The GuardianRichard Lawson In expanding its view beyond one woman and the fire of her personal testimony, Prima Facie makes itself not universal but frustratingly anodyne. Read
• 4.0 Flickering MythMatt Rodgers The biggest crime Prima Facie commits is in wasting both Erivo and the opportunity to shout from the stage to the biggest screens possible. Read