Critic Reviews
71
Metascore
Generally Favorable
positive
18(82%)
mixed
4(18%)
negative
0(0%)
Showing 22 Critic Reviews
91
A richly intimate sports fable.
88
The film moves with a jazzy, spacey rhythm and palpably evokes the Oregon 70s. Its a movie that makes you think and feel at once. [09 Oct 1998, p.24]
83
Towne never strains for effect, justifiably confident that his polished staging and wry, sneaky wit will be enough to give resonance to Pre's life.
80
Sutherland is just Sutherland but his trademark turn is the perfect foil for Crudup's charging rebel, and makes a personal, affecting relationship the centre of a story essentially about a bloke flogging himself round a running track.
78
It's a good, solid little film about a man whose story deserves better.
75
Sutherland's performance is the film's treasure. Watching the way he gently tries to direct his headstrong young star, we are seeing a version of Phil Jackson's Zen and the art of coaching.
75
An effective character study of a figure who has attained an almost-mythical status among track-and-field followers.
75
Towne defines Pre not by the freak car accident that killed him but by his willful need to keep on pushing. It’s Pre’s defiant spirit that makes Without Limits something worth cheering.
75
The athletic scenes are so lively and the main performances are so magnetic that even moviegoers who resist sports-centered pictures may be won over. [11 Sep 1998, p.B2]
75
A worthy companion to Towne's underrated 1982 portrait of female runners (Personal Best), Limits may face a similar challenge attracting mass moviegoers, which was certainly the case of the barely released Prefontaine. [11 Sep 1998]
