Sleepers, for all the doubts it raises, is the work of a man who speaks for absent friends and "for the children we were." It's his secret heart.
80
TimeRichard Schickel
TimeRichard Schickel
At some low, what's-next level, Sleepers works like, well, gangbusters. [28 October 1996, p. 113]
75
USA TodayMike Clark
USA TodayMike Clark
Engrosses if it doesn't fully convince. [18 October 1996, p.1D]
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
As entertainment, the movie functions successfully. But I don't believe the story is true--not true to the facts, and not true to the morality it pretends to be about.
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Stack
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Stack
A visual masterpiece that powerfully explores male cruelty, too.
75
San Francisco ExaminerBarbara Shulgasser
San Francisco ExaminerBarbara Shulgasser
Sometimes the movie lacks a quietness, an omission most egregiously felt at the end.
Muddy, confused, and worst of all boring, Sleepers grinds to the preordained halt shared by any over-budgeted epic that lacks the simple necessity of good story.
The dullest movie ever made about child abuse, conspiracy and murder.
10
NewsweekDavid Ansen
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Rent the devastating "The Boys of St. Vincent" to see how slick and hollow Sleepers is, how little it reveals about the real nature and effect of child abuse. [28 October 1996, p. 74]